


Superhuman Tonight

by Rearviewdreamer



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Community Service, M/M, Misfits AU, Superheroes, Superpowers, freak ice storms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 05:09:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17074019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rearviewdreamer/pseuds/Rearviewdreamer
Summary: A group of young offenders doing community service get struck by lightning during a storm, and begin to develop superpowers.





	1. Chapter 1

Orange has never been Harry’s color. He’s been trying to get used to the idea of wearing it every day for the next six weeks, but the more he tries the more he wants to take the stupid community service jumpsuit he’s the new proud owner of and fling it into the Thames. He grudgingly steps into it in front of his bedroom mirror and pulls the zipper over his boxers and white t-shirt. He stands back to examine himself, sighing as he tugs at the rough fabric. It’s stiff and scratchy, two things Harry could probably ignore if he didn’t feel like a fucking walking traffic cone. Not that it matters of course. None of it does. That’s what happens when you ruin your entire life. Or at least six weeks of it.

He has to take two trains just to make it to his service site. Some community center he’s never heard of on the edge of the city. It’s right along a river that isn’t the Thames but looks just as enticing as people stare at him walking along its edge like a giant carrot. Unfortunately, the community center itself isn’t quite so appealing. It’s an old, ugly structure made out of slabs of concrete and brick, almost every one of which has been painted, tagged, defaced, or vandalized in some way. Tearing it down and starting over from scratch is probably a better plan than trying to clean it, however, this is the hell-hole at which the judge sentenced Harry to spend his entire summer and he wasn’t given a wrecking ball so he assumes he’s about to be very, very busy.

It seems he’s not the only person being forced to spend their days here once he steps through the squeaky double-doors. Other people dressed in orange are scattered about the foyer, presumably just as unsure of where exactly they’re supposed to go as Harry is. All three of them look up from their phones when Harry enters the room which is about all the acknowledgment he gets before they all go back to what they were doing before. Harry mentally debates which spot he should choose to hang out in that isn’t already occupied by a fellow pumpkin-colored delinquent. He never has to actually make a decision on that thanks to a door opening and closing somewhere at the back of the building. Harry counts the heavy, lethargic footsteps making their way towards them until a large man appears with an angry face and even angrier voice as he barks out a greeting.

“What the hell are you all doing lying around on your arses? This isn’t a bloody holiday.”

They each spare a glance around at one another, however nobody seems particularly inspired to move.

“If it weren’t already clear, that means get _off_ your lazy arses and get over here,” the man shouts, watching with annoyance as Harry and the rest of the people in the room shuffle to come stand before him.

The man doesn’t look any friendlier this close up than he did from the double doors, looking each of them up and down like he’d prefer for all four of them to disappear through the filthy floor Harry’s sure they’ll be mopping at some point.

“I’m your probation worker in case that wasn’t obvious to you lot either. For the next six weeks you’ll be under my supervision completing your community service, helping you to reflect on the choices you’ve made to land yourself here so that you can be rehabilitated and-”

“What do we call you again? I think it got lost in translation when you started grumbling about rehabili-something-something.”

Harry freezes, watching the probation worker’s eyes narrow in his direction, but thankfully they rove over him, landing instead on the boy standing beside Harry wearing an expectant expression as he boldly meets the probation worker’s gaze.

No one else has dared to breathe a word yet in the five minutes they’ve been here and this boy has already managed to make a vein start throbbing over their probation worker’s temple. Harry would be impressed if he weren’t so scared to see what happens next.

“Er- Sorry. Missed it again. Your name, mate?” the boy repeats, barely managing to disguise his amusement when their probation worker gives a weary sigh, pinching the bride of his nose between his thumb and index finger.

“There’s buckets and rags in the janitor’s closet, and there’s a wall outside with spray paint on it. Get out of my sight,” he mumbles.

Everyone starts moving including the boy, however he stops just before passing the man who’s still massaging the pressure away from his eyes.

“Sorry. _Which_ wall would that be exactly?”

“I don’t care! Any of them. _All_ of them. Just pick one!”

The boy gives a great shrug after the probation worker’s outburst, somehow managing to keep a straight face when it looks like he’s about two seconds from snorting a laugh.

“Sounds vague to me, but whatever, mate. You’re the boss.”

 The last thing Harry hears is the loud voice booming through the foyer ordering them to all get out along with four pairs of feet hurrying out of the room as they were told. 

 

As far as which wall to clean, their probation worker was right. All of them are options so they choose the one that’s closest and with less graffiti splashed across it. Nobody’s talking to one another. The only conversation they’ve had at all was a quick poll to decide where they should start which resulted in bickering between the boy who introduced himself as Liam and the one who has yet to introduce himself but seems to take immense pleasure in getting under everybody’s skin. Just for the fun of it. If nothing else, his sarcasm helps to lift the mood while they all scrub away in vain.

Neither of them has said anything to Harry yet, but he almost prefers it that way. He just wants to keep his head down and get his community service over without a fuss. Flying under the radar with these people won’t be too hard to manage. Or at least, it _wouldn’t_ be if the problematic yet really cute one wasn’t constantly peeking over at him.

It’s happened about half a dozen times now. Ever since he asked Liam about his take on spray-painted penises and balls as modern art and Liam promptly asked him to fuck off. He asked the other boy as well. Niall, if Harry remembers correctly, though he was no more willing to play along than Liam had been. Now, the boy’s attention is on Harry as he half-heartedly scrubs at the paint before them, his blue eyes curiously cutting towards him every minute or so. He wishes he could tell what the hell he’s thinking over there, or at least what’s so bloody funny.

“I can’t believe they’re actually making us do this,” the boy says eventually, complaining obviously, but with amusement coloring his words. “I mean, sure we’re criminal offenders and all, but we’re still human.”

Harry stops his circular scrubbing motions against the wall, finally facing his neighbor and realizing there’s a soapy hand outstretched toward him.

“I’m Louis by the way,” the boy reveals, watching Harry just as expectantly as he had their probation worker when he had jokingly asked for his name, but this doesn’t feel like that when they shake hands. “Welcome to team jumpsuit. It’s good to have you.”

“Harry. And thanks… I think,” he answers with a half-frown watching a few crinkles materialize at the corners of Louis’ eyes before he returns to scrubbing his section of the wall.  

He had expected more. An inquiry of his appreciation for crude street art at the very least, but Louis doesn’t say anything more. It only takes a few beats of silence for Harry to crack. Curious as to how the refreshingly polite and charming Louis of this moment coincides with the playfully mischievous one who loves taking the piss and somehow landed himself here removing poorly-drawn penises from concrete.

“Um. So, er- what exactly did you do anyway?” Harry bravely asks knowing it’s probably rude to do so, but his curiosity gets the better of him. “…To get community service, I mean,” he clarifies in case it wasn’t already obvious he’s being a nosy shit. But so are Niall and Liam, both of whom now appear to be doing more eavesdropping than scrubbing. Louis isn’t at all bothered. In fact, he turns to Harry wearing a smirk that says he’s downright happy to oblige.

“Why, _Harry_. This is all so sudden. We barely even know each other,” he teases, making Harry crack a genuine smile for the first time today. “Well, I’m usually not that kind of girl, but I’ll share my tales of delinquency with you. Since you pried so nicely,” he grins, unceremoniously dropping his rag into the murky bucket of water at his feet.  

***                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ***

There were a billion other places in the world Louis could’ve been that night; _should’ve_ been, in hindsight, but honestly it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference in the long run. He still would’ve been off his face with his friends, cackling and loudly traipsing through the city like they own the place only to be distracted by the giant letters spelling out _Louis Vuitton_ glowing above the shop’s double doors. Giant glowing letters that Louis and all his mates agreed would look much better hanging someplace else like inside Louis’ bedroom for example. Stealing the sign was supposed to be a relatively simple mission. After all, they only needed the first five letters of it, but it seems the good people of Louis Vuitton take their shop sign security seriously, practically bolting them to the fucking building. And then of course, there were the lovely cops who spotted them mid-crime, stopped them, and oddly enough weren’t too angry about the whole ordeal since no _actual_ harm had been done.

***                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ***

“Wait,” Harry frowns once Louis finishes his story. “So, you only ‘ _nearly_ ’ stole it? Who gets charged for _nearly_ stealing a sign?”

“Well, to be fair, it wasn’t so much the _sign_  that did me in as it was the weed I was holding for a friend in my back pocket,” he explains.

“Er- Oh.”

“Yeah, I was already pretty high at the time, and as it turns out, that friend I was holding for was actually _me,_ so. Yeah.”

“ _Wow_ ,” Harry deadpans, unable to even pretend he’s still scrubbing anymore as he gawks right at Louis and snorts a laugh he didn’t even realize was bubbling up inside him. Again, Louis doesn’t seem to mind, looking quite endeared as Harry attempts to collect himself.

“Well you’re not exactly a model citizen either, Curly, or else you wouldn’t be here,” he points out. “Come on then, out with it. What’d you do?” His question sobers Harry and immediately wipes the dumb smile off his face as he tries his best to avoid the pair of eyes burning into the side of his face. “Holy shit, Curly. What’d you do?”

Harry had hoped to never have to say it out loud again. Just saying it to his mother was embarrassing enough.

His words come out in a mumbled rush that’s barely even intelligible to his own ears let alone anyone else’s. “Ipwsehsdoff a cop.”

Louis’ brow furrows deeply at that. “Sorry. You pissed off a cop?” he asks, astonished. “And they gave you community service for that?? Jesus, if that’s the case I should’ve been given community service a billion times over by now with as many cops I’ve pissed off.”

“ON” Harry blurts out much clearer than before. “I didn’t piss _off_ a cop I pissed _on_ a cop, but I didn’t mean to do it, I swear.” Harry squeezes his eyes shut as he recounts that fateful night that everything had gone so well right up until the time it hadn’t. Like Louis, Harry was also out with his friends and off his fucking face. They had been out all night and ended up at some house party. He doesn’t even know who’s fucking house it was only that it was filled with people, he had to pee worse than he ever had in his life, and all the bathrooms were occupied. Somehow, he found himself outside on a balcony, which to _him_ looked as good of a place as any to finally relieve himself, and it would’ve been if only he’d thought to look down _before_ accidentally making the top of a patrol officer’s head his own personal toilet.

The end of Harry’s story is almost completely lost in the breathless cackle erupting next to him. Louis can’t even stand up straight, abandoning all pretenses of actually working to lean against the filthy wall they should all be cleaning right now, however it seems the rest of Team Jumpsuit has given up as well and are now quietly chuckling along.

“ _Oh my God_ ,” Louis exclaims. “Your story is _so_ much worse than mine! Public intoxication _slash_ urination? Jesus, mate, you’re like a _proper_ delinquent.” Harry rolls his eyes though he can’t stop himself from laughing too at his own expense. “Well, I’m pretty sure _nobody’s_ going to top giving a cop a golden shower but there’s no harm in trying,” Louis says, raising a brow in the other boys’ direction. “Niall, you’re up. What dumb thing did you do?”

Harry peeks over at the boy next to Louis who hasn’t said much all morning but seems kind enough as he gives an indifferent shrug.

“Stole something,” he answers honestly. “Fender custom 1951 Nocaster.”

“Ah, so an _actual_ thief in our midsts,” Louis nods approvingly. “Why’d you steal it?”

“ _Tried_ to steal,” Niall corrects, “And I had to. There's only a handful of those guitars left and the owner’s an idiot who was going to ruin it by trying to restore it himself. And I couldn’t just sit back and allow _that_ to happen, so, I decided to rescue it from harm’s way so to speak.”

“You risked community service in exchange for stealing some old guitar?”

“Yep. And totally worth it,” Niall maintains. “Though, had I known the shop owner left his house keys behind and would drive back to the shop for them, I probably would’ve waited and made sure he’d _actually_ gone home for the night before breaking and entering his shop, but, what can you do, right?” he shrugs.

Be a better thief is the first thing that pops into Harry’s mind, but he doesn’t say something so rude out loud. He kind of likes Niall and Louis too. Even if successfully stealing things aren’t exactly strengths of theirs.

The three of them all start laughing again at the unforeseen, yet hilarious fuck-up that resulted in Niall being stuck here for six weeks too. Harry only realizes there’s a laugh missing when he hears the scrubbing resume towards the very end part of the wall.

“Er- Liam?” Harry tries in an encouraging voice, noticing the hard set to Liam’s jaw at odds with the embarrassment and remorse in his eyes. “There’s obviously no judgement here with us. Did you want to-?”

“No. I didn’t even do anything,” he mutters, cutting his brown eyes over at Louis’ mumbled response of, ‘ _Well, technically, neither did we but you don’t see us whining_.’ “ _No_ ,” Liam huffs. “I don’t mean I got caught _almost_ doing something I wasn’t supposed to, I mean I didn’t do anything wrong in the first place. I shouldn’t even be here. It should be someone else.”

Harry feels terrible for him. Sure, they all did something beyond stupid that dumped them here (which, honestly, they all kind of deserve), but it’s different if someone’s actually innocent.

“Hey. Hang on a second,” Louis frowns. “I think I know you. Liam Payne, right? You’re that footballer who got caught with all the drugs.”

“They weren’t mine.”

“Yeah, I know. You were just holding them for a friend. I get it,” Louis winks. “Same.”

“No, _not_ the same,” Liam growls. “My friend was real and he set me up by putting _his_ drugs in _my_ car and now my life is over. My career’s ruined.”

“Oh please. It’s six weeks community service and probation. Your career’s not _ruined_ ,” Louis rolls his eyes. “It’s just, uh, _on pause_ for the moment.”

Liam doesn’t seem to agree with that statement.

“Are you crazy? No team’s going to take me after this. I’m done,” he sighs. “God, if I could just go back…”

“ _Why_?” Louis grimaces. “If anything you’re even _more_ marketable now because everybody knows you. Some people would kill for that kind of free publicity.”

Liam breathes a humorless laugh before woefully shaking his head. “Never mind. You don’t understand.”

“And _I_ think you’re beating yourself up over nothing,” Louis tells him. “It’s six weeks, mate. You’ll be out of here and back on the pitch before you know it.”

Harry doesn’t blame Liam for feeling like everything is falling apart when he too felt that way just this morning. However, Louis does have a point. A few lousy weeks can’t define a lifetime. They’ll probably fly by.

*

Waking up the next morning and realizing all there is to look forward to is more community service sucks, but Harry must admit it sucks a lot less than it did yesterday. Day one was hard mostly because he had no idea what to expect, and frankly, he was a little scared walking into unknown territory. Not like today, knowing that he’s going to spend his day either cleaning, scrubbing, or scraping something until his fingers ache, but at least he’ll have some good company.

He heads for the locker room when he arrives having learned his lesson about wearing his jumpsuit from home with all the disapproving looks he got yesterday on the train. Everybody else is already there and nearly finished changing when Harry steps into the room so he quickly finds his locker to do the same. Liam and Niall both nod in passing as they leave for the foyer and Louis follows, smirking at Harry fumbling out of his jeans and into his jumpsuit over the sound of their probation worker grumbling about nobody being on time. 

“Better hurry,” Louis teases. “Sounds like our darling probation worker’s in a mood. You know, _again_.” And Harry would very much like to stay on the _opposite_ end of that mood, moving faster than his coordination will allow, momentarily losing his balance due to the legs of his jumpsuit tangling at his feet. “You alright?” Louis chuckles.

After fighting with his jumpsuit, Harry finally manages to pull it on and stop blushing long enough to answer him. “No. Er- I mean, _yes_. I- I’ll be right there.” Something about either what Harry said or the way he said it makes Louis bite down on a fresh smile. He leaves soon afterwards, most likely to go join the others, and once again Harry is left with the desire to know what’s going on in that head of his.

*

“Where does _Moody_ come up with all these so-called tasks anyway?” Louis grumbles a couple of hours later letting the plastic scraper in his hands clatter to the pavement below him. “And who the hell chews this much fucking gum?! Do people not know how to use a bin anymore? It’s literally two steps away!” he bellows at the row of park benches absolutely covered in bright, colorful wads dried by the sun.

“Yeah, people suck,” Niall agrees, gagging when he scrapes over a green wad of gum that’s still fresh. “This is just pure laziness,” he grimaces.

“Or spite,” Liam chimes in from behind his own germ-ridden bench. “They probably knew people like _us_ would be the ones to have to clean it up.”

Harry tends to agree with that logic seeing as how when he was younger he would purposefully make a mess in the kitchen during his after school snack simply because his older sister was the one responsible for tidying up afterwards. Perhaps this is payback for all those times Harry thinks, his mouth contorting into a frown when his scraper comes into contact with gum so fresh its sticky and smears over even _more_ of the bench. 

“This isn’t community service, it’s fucking torture _and_ it’s disgusting,” Louis continues. “God I wish I could just snap my fingers or wave a magic wand and make this shit-hole clean itself up.”

“Then what would we have left to do? They’d just find another shit-hole to dump us in,” Liam points out making Louis roll his eyes so far back that Harry momentarily loses the ring of sky blue in them.

“Right. Liam, is it your last name that makes you such a joy to work with or do you just happen to love being a pessimist?”

Liam rolls his eyes next, not even slightly bothered by that dig. “Says the person always complaining.”

“ _Says the person always complaining_ ,” Louis chirps back at him in a high-pitched voice that sets both boys off.

Their bickering is generally quite entertaining to watch however a quick look up at the sky and the bizarre clouds rolling in above them draws Harry’s attention more. He abandons his gum scraper and stands up to get a better look. Niall soon comes to join him followed by Louis and Liam who aren’t even arguing anymore as they watch the giant storm forming right over their heads.

“Um, hello? Is there a reason why nobody here is working?” someone huffs from behind them. Harry assumes it’s their probation worker since it generally always is. None of them bother responding to him though, simply pointing up. “What the hell is that?”

Harry is just wondering the same thing when the clouds open up to let a block of ice the size of an armchair fall and crash to the ground right in front of them.

“Jesus, that could’ve killed somebody,” Niall gasps just as a clap of thunder booms overhead and hundreds of even larger blocks of ice rain down on them like bombs from all sides.

“We have to get out of here! Run!” Liam shouts over the noise unnecessarily because they’ve already started moving.

It’s like trying to make their way through a battlefield with so much ice exploding around them and whole pieces of trees and buildings breaking off as a result.

“What the hell is going on out here? What is this?!” Louis yells next to him, just barely avoiding being crushed by an ice block. Another hurdles straight for him sending Harry’s heart rate skyrocketing.

“WATCH OUT!” he screams, reaching out to push him out of the way of certain death when another clap of thunder paired with a blinding flash sends them all flying back.


	2. Chapter 2

Harry comes to with his head pounding like a drum. His whole body aches with a tingling sensation when he finally sits up to find everybody else slowly stirring where they’re all sprawled out on the pavement. No one seems to be badly injured. Just a little banged up from the massive fall they all took. The cause of which Harry is very unsure.

“I feel weird,” Louis mumbles to his right, rubbing over the pads of his fingers like they feel different than usual.

“Me too,” Niall says, groaning as he lifts his head from the palms of his hands. “I guess that’s what happens when you get struck by lightning.”

Is that what happened? They were struck by lightning all at once? It seems unlikely for that to even be possible, but somehow it must be. That’s the only logical explanation.

“Thank God you’re alright.”

Harry glances to his right, grinning when he meets a pair of relieved blue eyes. “Thanks, Louis.”

“For what?” Louis frowns making Harry fondly roll his eyes. Leave it to Louis to take the piss even after a near-death experience.

“For what you just said obviously,” Harry chuckles.

Louis blinks at him as if he just sprouted an extra ear or something. “I didn’t say anything.” Harry would like to think this is another of Louis’ jokes, but he’s never seen him so serious. “Hey, do you feel alright? You don’t think you hit your head, do you?” 

Harry has no idea what parts of his body came into contact with the ground when he landed on it, but he _is_ certain he heard Louis’ voice earlier just as clear as he heard it just now. Perhaps Louis’ right and he does have some sort of concussion. Either that or he’s losing it.

“Er- Maybe. Probably,” Harry answers after giving it some thought. A head injury would explain why his brain feels like it’s playing drums against his skull.

“I really hope you’re not hurt. We should look up signs of head trauma just to be sure. That’s what mum would do.”

Harry was looking right at Louis when he said all that, and yet Harry can’t remember ever seeing his mouth move.

“God, those two have got it so bad for each other already.”

Harry turns to where Liam is carefully massaging his forearm, his brow furrowing when feels Harry watching.

“What?”

Liam’s mouth actually moves this time which is good because it certainly didn’t a few seconds ago.

“Hey, wasn’t Moody here with us too? Where’d he go?” Niall asks with real words that Harry can see leaving his mouth.

The four of them look around, finding no sign of their probation worker or the storm that could’ve killed them all.

“I don’t like this. Something about it feels wrong.”

Again, Harry glances to his right not sure if Louis actually said that or if he’s imagining it, but either way, Harry agrees completely. Something’s not right.

“We should go inside to look for him,” Louis continues in a more confident voice. “We don’t need to be out here anyway in case another storm rolls in. It’s not safe.”

Those were real words. Harry knows because it’s not just him who nods in agreement before forcing himself off the ground and onto his feet.

The inside of the community center is just as eerily quiet and deserted as the outside of it. Every room they check is empty and without so much as a trace of their probation worker who can usually be found hunched over his desk in his office, supervising from afar.

“He’s not there. Checked every stall,” Niall reports coming back to the foyer from the bathrooms just as Liam returns from the opposite side of the building with his own report.

“He’s not in the storage area either. He probably just went home after the storm.”

‘ _Without his car, house keys, and wallet?_ ’

Louis points out without his lips so much as moving. The rest of Harry has recuperated quite well in the past ten minutes they’ve been searching for their probation worker, but hearing unspoken words is still happening and much more frequently.

“Hey,” the very person Harry was just listening to says when he notices Harry not saying very much and worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. “Are you alright?” Louis gently squeezes Harry’s forearm making it tingle beneath the sleeve of his jumpsuit. Louis comments on a whole range of things after that from the undeniable weirdness of this day to the soft green of Harry’s eyes. Each unspoken sentence overlapping the other but without being yelled. The words are so much quieter than Louis’ actual voice, but they’re still there; still manage to cut through the conversation Liam and Niall are still having a few feet away.

“Moody took off. We should leave too,” Niall argues. “It’s not like there’s anybody around to keep us here.”

“We shouldn’t just leave. If something’s happened to him it’ll look weird that we left.”

“What’s going to look weird?” Niall demands. “Weird how?”

“Weird as in _suspicious_ obviously. He’s _missing_ ,” Liam quips back before his words turn to whispers just like Louis’. ‘ _He didn’t just go home. That doesn’t even make any sense with all his things still here. He could be hurt or worse, and if it’s worse we’re going to be the first people they fucking look to. Fuck. We’ll never get out of here and then I won’t have to worry about probation or community service anymore because I’ll be in fucking jail_.’

“Hey, it’s going to be alright. We aren’t going to be blamed and no one’s going to jail,” Harry says to reassure Liam and quell his fears, forgetting that Liam never actually _said_ any of that. He realizes his mistake when everybody frowns at the random interaction.

“Um, I just said we should get the hell out of this dump,” Niall explains. “Nobody said anything about us going to fucking _jail_.”

“I did.” Liam meets Harry’s gaze, his brows furrowing closer together. “Well, sort of. I didn’t really say it. I thought it. In my head.” Niall and Louis both frown before the weight of what Liam just said sinks in and they turn their gazes on Harry.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Niall says, giving doubtful shakes of his head. “So, you’re telling me that _Liam_ here thought we we’re all going to jail and _you_...”

“Heard it?” Harry quietly finishes for him, chewing his lip so hard now that he starts to taste blood. “Yeah. I-I think so,” he admits, wishing he had just stayed quiet when he feels three pairs of eyes burning into him and then the distinct sound of a cackle erupting from Niall’s direction.

“Oh shit. You and Liam nearly had me for a second there,” he laughs. “Good one. I’m impressed. When’d you two have the time to orchestrate that between getting nearly beaten to death by ice?”

“We didn’t because it’s not a joke,” Harry maintains. “I’m serious. I _heard_ him. I’ve been hearing all of you. Ever since the storm.”

“Oh, right,” Niall snickers. “Okay, then. What am I thinking right now?”

‘ _This is such bullshit. He can’t read minds.’_

Harry repeats the thoughts he just heard even though he knows they won’t exactly _help_ his claim.

“You think it’s bullshit and I can’t read minds, but that’s what you _should_ be thinking because it _shouldn’t_ be possible!”

“And it _isn’t_ ,” Niall mutters under his breath.

“Except it _is_!” Harry booms much louder than he meant. “You think I don’t know how insane I sound? I sound absolutely mental, but it _is_ true. You literally just thought the color blue. Red. Now green. 12,725!”

Niall’s jaw drops as Harry says everything he’s thinking. “All lucky guesses!” Niall claims making Harry throw his hands up in defeat.

He focuses on taking deep breaths to calm himself, his shoulders losing all their tension when someone gives them a light squeeze.

“Here, read _my_ mind,” Louis says, his eyes more encouraging more willing to believe him than anybody else’s. “Go on, I’m thinking something right now. What do you hear?”

_‘I saw you once at a pub with your mates.’_

“You saw me and my friends at a pub called Lucky’s a few months ago.”

Louis’ eyebrows shoot up when Harry says the very thing he’s thinking, but not so much in disbelief as it is awe.

“Oh my God,” he breathes, his lips pulling up into a grin as his thoughts surrounding that night at Lucky’s digress into the way he wished Harry would look at him too, just for a moment, and then to some other thoughts that weren’t quite as innocent but they’re flattering nonetheless and make Harry smile. _“Oh my God.”_ Louis clears his throat, nearly choking on air when he realizes Harry heard every word of that. And, well, Harry did always wonder what Louis was thinking. “Shit, Harry, I’m- I didn’t mean to- _Sorry_.”

Harry can’t wipe the smile off his face as he listens to Louis apologize out loud while mentally chastising himself for his imagination getting the better of him. “It’s okay. Really,” Harry chuckles. “Er- Good to know I guess?”

 _‘It was the storm. It had to be,’_ Liam thinks pulling Harry’s attention back to him and away from Louis.

“I think you’re right, Liam, because I definitely couldn’t hear you all before it happened,” Harry answers just as a loud thump from somewhere near the back of the room makes them all go quiet.

“What was that? More ice do you think?” Niall wonders aloud, slowly making his way towards the back door of the community center to have a look when a second thump sounds.

‘“Wait. We don’t know what’s out there,” Louis tells him before he gets too far on his own. “I’ll go with you.”  

The door is locked once Louis and Niall are standing in front of it prompting Louis to twist the deadbolt so they can have a peek outside. The click echoes throughout the room followed by a giant boom as the door is kicked in from the outside by none other than their missing probation worker.

His eyes are as hard and cold as the ice that fell from the sky just minutes ago and every vein in his hands and neck bulge as he steps inside, takes one look at Niall cowering away, and lunges for him with outstretched hands. His grip closes around Niall’s throat squeezing so hard that his neck snaps and he’s lifeless on the floor before anybody else in the room can even get to them. Everybody seems to be in shock watching their probation worker grab a wooden bat from a shelf at the back of the room and turn his angry glare on Louis next. No one can stop it before Louis is struck and bleeding out on the floor, but then something happens and the scene freezes, and suddenly all the blood, bodies, and their murderous probation worker aren’t there at all.

_‘It was the storm. It had to be.’_

Harry frowns at Liam’s thought which is identical to the thought he had before. Now that Harry is paying attention, everything about this moment feels oddly redundant from the stubborn set of Niall’s jaw to the blush on Louis’ cheeks for wanting him so badly that night at the pub. Neither of them is dead which is brilliant of course, but it does bring up some nagging questions since Harry literally just watched them be brutally killed. When Harry meets Liam’s gaze it isn’t full of awe for Harry’s newly acquired skills as a mind reader, but fear. Just like every frantic and terrified thought currently running through his mind because he saw Louis and Niall die too.

“What the hell was that?” Harry demands out of nowhere but Liam seems just as lost and confused as him.

“I-I don’t _know_ what that was. I can’t-” he chokes out pointing at the spot where Louis and Niall should be lying on the floor.

“What was what?” Louis frowns between the two of them. “What doesn’t he know? What did he think?”

“It’s not what he thought,” Harry shakes his head. “It’s- It’s what he _saw_ , I guess? What I saw _through_ him,” he explains, unsure if that’s even the right way to describe what the fuck just happened. Harry has only been reading thoughts for approximately half an hour so he’s no expert, but usually he just gets words. With Liam just now he got a whole picture. A whole _memory_. Except, it can’t have been a memory since both Niall and Louis are perfectly fine.

A loud thump sounds at the back of the building again, silencing the room and making Harry and Liam jump in fear like a reflex.

“What was that?” Niall asks just like before. “More ice do you think?”

“DON’T!” they shout in unison making Niall stop dead in his tracks on the way to go investigate.

“What the hell? Why are you two screaming like crazy people when I’m just going to go see what’s making that-”

“It’s the probation worker!” Liam tells him. “He’s waiting for us at the back door.”

“Um _, no_ , he’s not. We’ve already established that he bailed, remember?” Niall argues, still walking towards the back of the room until Liam grabs him by the shoulders and pulls him back.

“He’s not at home. He never left and he’s still here waiting to kill us the moment we open that door! I saw it! Ask Harry if you don’t believe me because he saw it too!”

“It’s true, Niall. There was a thump at the door, you walked over to answer it with Louis, and then when you open the door the probation worker kills you both. He’s not lying. It happened.”

Niall looks between them and the door, not at all convinced this isn’t still some big joke but the fear in his eyes is real now, just like all the thoughts racing through his mind wondering if his life really is in danger.

“You- You said he kills us both?” Louis asks with hardly any color left in his face as he swallows hard. 

Harry nods, wincing as he recalls the image of Louis and Niall lying dead on the ground. “He beats you to the death with the baseball bat right after he snaps Niall’s neck,” he reveals. “He probably would’ve come after Liam and I next but then-”

“But then the vision stopped, time sort of rewinded itself, and then we were right back here,” Liam finishes for him. “And _now_ we know what happens if we unlock that door, so we’re not going to.”

Niall rolls his eyes at that. “So what then, we’re just supposed to believe everything you say? Trust that this isn’t complete bullshit and Harry can read minds and now you can what? See the bloody future?”

Another thump at the door quiets them again but everyone’s thoughts are so loud it’s like they’re screaming them right in Harry’s ear.

‘ _Jesus, I_ _can’t believe I’m actually going to die that way- What if they really are telling the truth- We can’t open that door no matter what or else we’re all done for_.’

The noise echoes a third time and much louder as someone rattles the handle and tries to force it open from the outside. 

“Still think it’s _ice_?” Liam quips at Niall who doesn’t even say anything back, his eyes wide and staring at the undeniable evidence of someone attempting to come in.

The four of them exchange relieved glances when the rattling stops a few seconds later and the person finally gives up.

“He’s gone. _Good_ ,” Niall sighs just as a door opens and shuts somewhere inside the building and the lights overhead give a flicker before completely going out.

***                                                                                                                                                                                                             ***

Niall thinks he may have spoken too soon when the entire community center goes black. It’s still light outside but it’s not enough to illuminate the room they’re all standing in or make it possible to see what the hell is making that awful snarling sound or whose slow, heavy footsteps are getting closer and closer to where they are by the second.

“What the hell is that?” someone whispers in a shaky voice. It would help if Niall could actually see the person, but he’s able to guess it’s Louis by his proximity to Harry who was just a few feet away before the lights went out. “Fuck. Do you think it’s him?”

“Liam’s right,” Harry says all of a sudden even though Liam has said nothing at all. “He doesn’t have his keys. We should lock all the doors to the foyer so he can’t get in.”

That sounds like a great fucking plan, and if Harry really can read minds then he should know that Niall is in full fucking support of that plan, but no sooner than Harry suggests it does their probation worker come crashing through one of the side doors wielding a jagged metal pole that he swings the moment he sets eyes on them.

“RUN!” someone shouts. It’s too dark to tell who but Niall certainly doesn’t stick around to figure it out as he takes off in the opposite direction.

Everybody else’s footsteps pound behind him, all four of them running to wherever they can to escape the person who really is trying to kill them. Harry and Liam weren’t just making it up even though they sounded crazy as fuck and them being able to hear thoughts and rewind the future or whatever the hell it is they can do sounds crazy too. Niall’s just glad they stopped him from opening that door earlier and killing them all. True, they are currently being chased down like dogs and will probably be killed anyway since their probation worker has gone mad, but at least Niall’s not to blame.

“Could you please think we’re doomed a little quieter?” Harry hisses as they reach the end of the long corridor and come to a standstill realizing there’s nowhere else to go.

There’s a few small supply closets and the open locker room to the right, but all those places are just as easily accessible to the probation worker as they are to them. They’d be found almost immediately no matter which they chose but the electrical room to the left? That’s big enough and with enough equipment and dark corners that they could go unseen for as long as they need.

“In there, quick!” Niall says, pointing at the giant room before them that everybody else just frowns at.

“Er- In there, _where_?” Liam asks looking just as confused as Harry and Louis. “There’s just a wall.”

“What the hell are you talking about? It’s right th- there?”

It’s only after Niall points at the open room to their left that he realizes the door of it doesn’t _look_ very door like. The edges are blurred and wobbly which Niall assumed was the result of the lack of windows in this part of the building playing tricks on his eyes, however now he sees how misshapen the entrance to the room looks and how it seems to move along the wall wherever his gaze happens to land. It’s almost as if he can see _through_ the wall which is concerning since people generally aren’t able to do that. But, right now as they’re collectively being hunted down by a man who wants to beat them to death in a fit of rage probably isn’t the best time to question it.

Niall walks the length of the wall back the way they came until he comes to an actual door he’s never noticed before that reads ‘ _Warning. Danger of electrocution or death_ ’.

“Seriously? We’re not in enough danger of dying as it is?” Louis deadpans but the sound of their probation worker tearing through the building towards them is far more pressing, forcing them to ignore the warning and hurry inside out of sight.

There’s a long set of breaker boxes on the opposite side of the room which they all run towards for cover. Niall crouches down and holds his knees to his chest to make himself as small as possible in between Liam and Harry with Louis taking up the other end. Niall focuses on slowing his heart rate so he isn’t panting like a dog on the off chance the probation worker does decide to come in here looking for them. He feels much safer here than he did out in the corridor. It’s a good thing he was able to find this room.

“How _did_ you find this place anyway? It's pitch black out there,” Harry whispers. “It was weird. Almost like you could see past the wall or something.”

That’s because _he did_ , but Niall doesn’t dare say that out loud. He doesn’t know what the hell is wrong with him that he suddenly has x-ray vision, but even now as he looks at the opposing wall he can see their probation worker lurking behind it clear as day. If only he'd had this new 'ability' the night he got caught stealing that old guitar. He wouldn't even be here in this mess right now.

“Maybe he’s gone to another part of the building already,” Louis says after a beat. “One of us could go check to see if the coast is clear.”

“It’s not. He’s in the locker room,” Niall sighs. “I- I can see him,” he winces, loathing the fact that everybody is now going to know how much of a freak show he is. Though, it’s not like him seeing through walls is much of a secret anyway with Harry probably listening in.

“What do you mean you can _see_ him?” Liam asks carefully. “As in… through the walls?”

“Yes, through the fucking walls. Now shut up about it, alright?” he snaps hating himself all the more for doing so but he can’t shake how scared he is and Liam asking questions is just making it worse. Niall calms after a minute, his thoughts and breathing becoming much less panicked after someone gives his shoulder a comforting squeeze. It’s Harry.

“Hey. Hey, it’s okay,” he assures him, even going as far as to answer a question Niall couldn’t bring himself to ask out loud. “And, you’re not a freak,” he whispers. “You saved us. So, thank you. On behalf of all us other freaks.”

If Niall hadn’t seen this room through the wall the four of them would still be out there. Being in this electrical room doesn’t exactly make them safe by any means, but it does keep them alive which is a positive out of this whole thing that he hadn’t really thought about. 

“Thanks, H,” Niall grins at his joke, feeling it slide right off his face when movement from outside the electrical room catches his attention. It’s their probation worker realizing he’s been searching the locker rooms in vain. He walks back out into the corridor, kicking in all the supply closets until there are none left. He lets out a growl each time he comes up empty-handed and soon decides to turn around and go back the way he came which draws his attention to the electrical room door that he too overlooked the first time.

“ _Keep walking_. _Don’t come in here. Don’t come in here,_ ” Niall chants over and over again, swearing when his wish goes ungranted and their door slowly creaks open.

Niall can hear every one of them collectively hold their breath as the sound of metal drags behind heavy footsteps. They jump when a switchboard weighing more than any human should be able to lift goes flying from one side of the room to the other, followed by another that lands right next to them sending sparks shooting across the floor. Their shield of breaker boxes move about a foot as a result and thanks to the four of them being forced to wear the brightest jumpsuits in the world, their cover is blown.

“RUN!”

They all scramble in opposite directions, but even with Niall’s warning everyone isn’t fast enough. When Niall he looks back he sees that Liam and Harry managed to escape, but Louis who was closest to their probation worker wasn’t as lucky. Niall’s wants to look away but finds that he can’t as Louis cowers under the jagged pole about to come crashing down on him.

“Please!” he begs, raising his hands to try and protect himself as anyone would, however it isn’t in vain because the moment he does the weapon is wrenched from the pair of hands wielding it, some invisible force sending it along with its owner soaring across the room.

It’s just one of many strange and unexplainable things that have happened today and their probation worker seems just as perplexed by this phenomenon as everyone else as he picks himself up from the floor. His confusion doesn’t last though, taking advantage of his new closer proximity to Harry and lunges for him instead.

“Harry! NO!” Louis shouts while nothing but a wave of his hand forces their probation worker flying backwards into a wall of breakers that sparks his body into convulsions that leave him a giant twitching heap on the floor and Louis staring down at his own shaky hands like they’re something out of a nightmare.

***                                                                                                                                                                                                                  ***

Nobody moves including their probation worker whom Harry assumes can’t anymore thanks to Louis. Liam clears his throat, bravely taking the first step towards the person who hasn’t so much as blinked since his unfortunate date with electricity. He’s probably dead. Harry isn’t one-hundred percent sure, but they’ve all thought it at least once. Harry should know.

Liam leans over their probation worker to examine him, more and more convinced he’s a goner the longer he does so but he doesn’t say that out loud.

“Er- Well. Maybe he’s not dead,” he tries and not very convincingly.

Niall disputes that optimistic statement the moment Liam utters it. “Are you kidding me? Look at him. He’s as dead as it gets. What the hell are you on about?”

“Well, he could just be knocked out or something,” Liam points out to which Niall mutters, ‘Yeah, because my eyes roll back and smoke starts rising off my skin when I’m knocked out too.’

“I- I hate to say it, but I’m with Niall on this.” Everybody turns to Louis, surprised to see him okay and collected enough to weigh in after what just happened. What he just did to save them all. “He’s dead and he isn’t coming back.”

“Thank you. Exactly,” Niall agrees. “So, now the question is what are we going to do with him?”

“ _Do_ with him?” Liam blinks incredulously. “ _We_ aren’t going to _do_ anything. We’re going to call the fucking police.”

“And say _what_? We were all struck by lightning so now H can read minds, you can see the future, I can see through walls, Lou here can move shit with his mind, and our dearly departed probation worker suddenly developed super strength and tried to go on a killing spree? No one’s ever going to believe that. We might as well sign ourselves into prison right now.”

Niall has... well, _several_ points, but that doesn’t make Liam any more willing to accept them. All he does is start them off on a fight, bickering back and forth about the issue until Louis speaks up again.

“Harry? What do you think?” ‘ _He’s the most sensible one here out of all of us. If anybody knows the right thing to do it’s him_.’

Harry appreciates all the confidence Louis has in him. Also, the fact that he just saved Harry’s life, but he’s not sure he’s any better equipped to make a decision here than anybody else. He considers everybody’s opinions including the ones they aren’t saying. Their probation worker is dead. The four of them are already labeled as offenders regardless of whether they actually did the things they were convicted of or not. They’re fucked, and since no one in their right minds would believe a bunch of criminals’ fantastical story, only one option remains. Only one makes sense.

“Niall’s right,” he says eventually even though it sucks to admit it. “We’ve got to move him. Get rid of the body now before anybody notices something’s wrong.”

 

Of all the things Harry thought he’d be doing at community service, digging a grave certainly wasn’t one of them. There’s an old overpass that doesn’t get much traffic that they all agreed would be the best place to hide someone they plan to report missing first thing tomorrow. That is, if nobody beats them to it. They wait until nightfall and dig down into the earth until they can’t anymore with a few rusty shovels they found in one of the supply closets, but that was the easy part. Getting their probation worker who weighs twice as much as each of them to the giant hole they dug was the part that slowed them down so in the end they used his car to transport him, adding auto theft to all their repertoires.

‘ _Fuck. Now we actually have to bury him. This is all my fault_.’

Harry glances over to where Louis is crouched down next to the body, far away enough that there’s no danger of touching it, yet close enough for the sight of it to torment him.

 _‘I’m a killer. I came here to be a better person and I ended up fucking killing someone who probably has a family and a whole life,’_ he thinks, correcting himself after his eyes rake over the body lying a few feet away. ‘ _Had.’_

The other two boys are busy finishing up the grave when Harry interrupts Louis’ self-induced guilt trip, carefully walking over to crouch down next to him.  

“You _are_ a good person,” Harry assures him. “And none of this is your fault, Louis. We’re all responsible here _and_ we’re all alive because of you.”

“None of you picked someone up with your fucking mind and threw him into a wall of breakers.”

“No, we didn’t but we probably would’ve if we could,” Harry teases. “But sadly, that’s your special talent. I just read minds. Totally boring.”

Louis cracks a genuine smile for the first time since all this started. It’s small, but it’s there and makes Harry very slightly proud being the cause of it. The feeling doesn’t last long. Eventually Liam and Niall crawl out of the massive hole the four of them dug together and the extra body lying on the ground becomes the center of attention once again.

“Ready to do this?” Liam asks them.

“Ready to get it over with,” Niall mutters next to him. “Lou? Any chance you can get all telekinetic and lift him with your mind again so we don’t have to?”

Harry can feel Louis tense up next to him at Niall’s attempt to lighten the mood. “Er- I’d love to help us all out there but unfortunately I don’t think it works that way. I-I don’t know _how_ I did it before. I just- did,” he explains with a shrug, his thoughts quieting again and a hint of his familiar grin returning when Liam’s does.

“You’re not the only one, mate. Because _same_.”

Once their probation worker is in the ground they each grab a shovel to start covering him up, but Harry’s voice makes them all freeze.

“Wait, we forgot something.”

They all frown watching hop down into the grave as well and then climb back out a few seconds later with a wallet in hand.

“Tom. That was his name,” Harry tells them, almost smiling since this is his first time ever hearing it. He assumed after that first meeting where Louis pestered him half to death (no pun intended) their probation worker refused to tell them his name out of spite.

“ _Tom_ , the probation worker?” Niall repeats, letting the name sit between them as if trying it on for size. Apparently, it’s not a good fit. “Eh. I think I liked Moody better.”

“Well we should say something anyway,” Liam suggests. “Something good.”

It’s not exactly an easy task. Even Harry struggles to come up with a proper eulogy for a man they didn’t know much about who never exactly warmed to them.

“Moody was- _Tom_ was one of a kind. Unique,” Liam says after a few beats.

“Sure was,” Niall agrees. “He had the biggest arms I’ve ever seen. His commitment to physical fitness was something to be admired. And nobody ever yelled quite like him.”

“That’s true,” Louis joins in, grinning in spite of everything. “Our rehabilitation was always his top priority.”

“Besides that one time he went crazy and tried to kill us all, but yeah,” Niall adds with a solemn sigh. “He was a great guy. May he rest in peace.”

Judging by everyone’s thoughts, that’s about as good as it’s going to get so Harry does the honors scooping up the first pile of dirt and tossing it over. The whole process takes a lot less time than all the digging they did. Not even half an hour passes before the hole is filled and level with the rest of the dirt surrounding them.

No one says anything about the need to keep this all quiet. It pretty much goes without saying that this is a secret between the four of them, each one of them meeting each other’s gazes in a silent pact.

Niall leaves first after volunteering to drive their probation worker’s car back to the community center where it can be found as if nothing happened. Liam goes with him and takes the shovels as well, the whole time fretting about what a single mistake could cost them. In the end, it’s just Harry and Louis lingering and unsure of where exactly to go since they don’t have a job to do.

“I should head home. It’s getting pretty late,” Louis decides after a while. ‘ _Mum’s shift is nowhere near over and everyone else is probably asleep by now. I don’t want to be alone.’_

Harry is almost certain he wasn’t meant to hear that last bit but Harry can relate. He doesn’t comment on what Louis is thinking to himself, however he does let Louis know that he never has to be by himself.

“Er- Yeah. Me too. It is getting pretty late,” Harry says in response. “But, just so you know, I live on the other side of town but it’s not too far from here. It’s usually just me and my parents at home these days since my sister spends most of her time with her boyfriend, so. There’s always extra room at the table. An extra bed if you need. Someone to talk to about all of... well,  _this,"_ he says with a big, circular hand-motion meant to embody all the crazy shit they've gone through in such a short amount of time.

Louis grins at his offer and his wild hand gesture. “You’re too kind. And also, a _complete_ mental eavesdropper,” he chuckles. “I’m just whining I guess. Tired after everything and more than ready to get out of this ugly fucking jumpsuit,” he says making them both laugh a bit. “But, I think I’ll be alright. I think we all will.”

Right now, they’re all a little shaken up and confused, and rightfully so, but Harry agrees that in time, they’ll be alright. He hopes so anyway.

“See you tomorrow?” Louis says before starting in the direction of home.

“Yeah, see you. Bright and early first thing,” Harry calls after him, his stomach feeling oddly wobbly and alive when Louis grins over his shoulder before disappearing into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Two Weeks Later

Walking into the community center feels a lot less monumental and scary now that being there has become such an integral part of Liam’s daily routine. He used to dread it every day. Loathed getting up in the morning just to go to a place he hated and put on a dumb orange jumpsuit he hated even more, but it’s not _all_ bad, he guesses. Having other people stuck in the same gum-smeared, graffiti-covered boat as him makes community service suck significantly less. Harry, Niall, and Louis actually make things tolerable which means Liam just might survive and make it through these six weeks after all. Maybe.

“Oi, Li? Do you want bathroom duty or mystery stains in the locker room? Choose wisely,” Niall says from a comfy-looking swivel chair in the lobby that most definitely doesn’t belong to him. 

Liam feels himself grimace at the thought of doing either chore.

“Erm- Is there a third option?”

“Nope. It’s either stains or toilets, but H and Lou aren’t here yet so we get first dibs.”

Calling dibs is about the only luxury they’re afforded in this place. A perk of getting to community service early.

“…Stains?” he decides after a long pause making Niall smirk in approval.

“Good choice. Those toilets are fucking vile. Let the two love birds deal with them. They’ll probably fucking _enjoy_ it.”

No sooner does Niall mention the two missing members of their group do they come strolling into the community center laughing at God knows what like always, flirting and so overly fond of one another that it can be seen from space and yet somehow nothing between them has happened. It’s a mystery as big as the stains Liam and Niall are about to go tackle in the locker room, but all in due time he supposes.

“You two took your sweet time getting here again so toilets are all yours. Snooze you lose,” Niall happily relays to the other half of their team who pull disgusted faces before catching sight of their matching expressions and bursting into a fit of cackles. “ _Told you they’d like it_ ,” Niall snorts over the sound of their new probation worker stepping out of her office to greet them.

“Good morning, boys!”

It’s such a stark difference to the way they were addressed by their former probation worker that Kate’s bright, chipper tone still sounds so foreign to Liam’s ears. No one knows where Tom formerly known as Moody is. It’s been two weeks since he mysteriously disappeared. The community center was searched up and down for days and nearly every question the cops had was aimed right at the only four people who saw Moody slash Tom before he went missing, but thankfully all that ended after a couple of days. Now, no one is looking for him. He’s presumed to have run off after it was revealed that he and his wife were having issues which sucks, but is honestly for the best since it keeps Mrs. Moody from knowing she’s technically a widow now and it keeps the four of them out of prison for the rest of their bloody lives. 

“Alright, boys, we’ve got a busy day ahead of us. Lots to do. There’s the locker rooms and toilets of course as I’ve already told Niall, but those are both probably more two-person jobs than f-”

“Dibs on lockers!” Niall interjects before anyone else can claim it. “Li and I will take them.”

“O-Oh,” Kate says blinking up from her clipboard of tasks they’re going to spend the day checking off. “Well, that’s fine with me if everyone else feels okay with it. Liam? Are you okay working with Niall?”

Liam nods, almost giving a shrug as well because it’s not like it really matters. After all, Niall already called dibs. “Yep, I’m fine with it. No big deal,” he answers making their probation worker turn away from him and towards the other two people in the room with an apologetic grin.

“Louis. Harry. If they’re on lockers, then unfortunately that means-”

“Lou and I are on toilets…” Harry says with the dumbest and most misplaced grin Liam has ever seen. “Together.” Well, the dumbest and most misplaced grin besides the one _Louis_ is now wearing after hearing Harry say that.

“Told you they’d like it,” Niall mutters next to him. “ _Weirdos_.”

Liam bites down on a laugh, in full agreement with what Niall said but he also can’t help but think their friends are kind of cute as well as disgusting since toilets just inherently _are._

*

It’s hours later when Liam looks away from the park bench he’s been painting for the last hour, feeling something wet splash onto his neck just above his jumpsuit collar.

He immediately touches the spot and pulls his fingers away with white paint stained on the pads of them. Paint which couldn’t have gotten there on its own. Locating the culprit isn’t hard, or rather, the _culprits_ who are currently chasing each other with paint brushes in what must be the messiest game of tag ever. Liam is just about to tell them both to chill the fuck out before Niall gets a splash of paint to the cheek and beats Liam to it.

“Oi! You’re supposed to be painting the benches not each other and definitely not _me_!”

Niall’s stern voice doesn’t do much besides make Harry cackle harder and subsequently fall over from lack of coordination, giving Louis the perfect opportunity to finally pin him down and cover him in paint from head to toe.

Liam fondly shakes his head watching the battle finally end and the two of them slowly drag themselves back to their half-painted benches after Niall warns that he’s not doing double the work again so the two of them can flirt like six-year-olds. Eventually, their friends resume working, but they’re still moving half the speed of Liam and Niall because they won’t stop snickering and flicking paint at one another. Like six-year-olds.

“God, they’re more ridiculous with the bloody paint than they were with the toilets. How is that even possible?” Niall says, rolling his eyes when Harry shouts from two benches over that he heard that. “Good! I said it out loud!” he shouts back.

The four of them weren’t even in the same room before but thanks to Niall and his special talent for seeing through concrete walls they know that the two of them did more laughing at all the hilariously rude things drawn on the stalls than actually cleaning them off. Louis and Harry never did finish the job by the time Liam and Niall finished cleaning the locker rooms so the four of them ended up on toilet duty anyway despite being in direct contradiction of dibs law. Clearly, Niall is still a bit bitter. Though, not quite as bitter as when Louis calls his name and Niall turns into a brush full of paint floating in mid-air thanks to Louis’ much improved talent of moving things with his mind.

Liam can practically feel the dissension in the ranks and the declaration of a paint war coming as Louis innocently smiles and mouths ‘I love you’ from behind his bench, Harry gasps and then slaps a hand over his own mouth to keep from cackling like an idiot, and Niall narrows his gaze in Louis’ direction. No good can come of any of it. They’ll all be scraping paint off the pavement for weeks. Liam’s almost certain of it until suddenly the bright and sunny scene before them darkens to moonlight and a group of hooded teenagers appear, giggling as they undo all of Louis’ hard work by spray painting several erect penises and one bum over all the layers of fresh paint on Louis’ bench just before somebody in the distance spots them and yells out, forcing the group to grab their things and flee into the night. The vision fades almost as quickly as it came revealing Niall still fuming a few feet away as he grips the handle of his paint bucket presumably to get his revenge.

“ _Don’t_ ,” Liam whispers just as Niall stands to make his move and pour the entire bucket over Louis’ head.

Niall frowns at being stopped, letting out a giant huff of frustration. “What?! Why the hell not?” he hisses back. “Did you not see what he just-”

“I did. I saw,” Liam says, fondly rolling his eyes when Niall’s expression turns exasperated. “No, Ni, I mean, I _saw_ ,” he explains with a smirk. “And let’s just say he’ll be extra busy tomorrow because that bench of his won’t be so pristine by morning.” Liam’s ability to occasionally see into the future hasn’t proven quite as useful as the day it saved all their lives. It would've been nice the night he got busted for those drugs too, but nothing can change that. Liam doesn’t have much control over his ability like all the others seem to, but even so, it can still be pretty worthwhile. Like now for instance when it hopefully saves them from having to mop up spilled paint for the rest of fucking forever.

“Oh.” Niall says it with a crinkled brow that smooths the longer Liam raises his eyebrows at him in significance. “ _Oh_.”

And that’s all the hint Niall needs to crack a triumphant smile, for Louis to frown in confusion because for some reason he’s not being threatened, chased, or murdered, and for Liam to breathe easier because someone will be back out here tomorrow with a paintbrush and a bucket but it won’t be him.

***                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ***

Louis grins down at his phone catching the reflection of it and the moon in the screen when he locates the address he needed. It took him a while since he had to scroll all the way back to the night of the storm when Harry first gave it to him after having to bury their probation worker. He’s pretty sure Harry only did that out of kindness that night, offering Louis a sort of security blanket on the off chance he ever needed someone to talk to about the woes of being struck by lightning, randomly acquiring telekinesis of all things, and essentially frying a grown man to a crisp without so much as lying a finger on him. For which, Louis is very grateful. That’s not exactly what he’s going to Harry’s for right now of course. Really, Louis doesn’t have a reason to be showing up at his house at all besides just wanting to see him despite the eight and a half hours he and Harry already spent together today, but who’s counting?

He starts down 5th street, walking along the yellow streetlights lining the pavement until he comes to a house with a pale blue door and so many beautiful kinds of flowers adorning the outsides of the windows that the boxes are practically overflowing. The house looks as lovely and bright as Louis expected from someone as sweet as Harry. Just like the kind-looking couple around Louis’ mum’s age who can be seen taking their evening tea from the kitchen to the living room where the opening credits of some movie cast a glow across the hardwood. It’s definitely not the sort of thing Louis ever witnessed where he grew up. It wouldn’t even happen now where he and his family currently live, but he sort of wonders what his life would’ve been like if it had. Probably not much different he smirks to himself seeing as how Harry wound up a drunken little delinquent too.

Besides the living room where Harry’s parents are enjoying a quiet evening together, there’s a light on upstairs as well in the bedroom on the right that could only belong to Harry since he keeps walking past it. Or rather, _dancing_ past it as it would seem from the occasional jumping/twirl combo and arm flailing that makes Louis snort each time he witnesses it.

As entertaining as it is watching such a meticulously crafted performance, Louis feels almost compelled to disrupt it as he smiles and his skin hums with that feeling of excitement that comes to alive anytime Louis finds himself in Harry’s proximity. Even in the bloody toilets of the community center (which, by the way, are fucking _vile_ ) but with Harry next to him the whole time Louis didn’t even mind. He’d dare say he actually enjoyed it. As gross and completely fucking demented as that sounds.

_L:‘Whatcha you listening to?’_

Louis hits send and all movement in Harry’s bedroom stops almost immediately.

 _H_ : ‘ _Who says I’m listening to anything?_ ’

 _L:_ ‘ _Probably the epic air guitar and drums I just saw you playing. I’m outside_ ,’ Louis chuckles watching a Harry-shaped shadow race to the window and a dimpled smile shine down on Louis as bright as the moon.

 _H_ : ‘ _I think my parents are still downstairs. Just ring the bell. Or give me a sec and I’ll be right down_ ,’ he types back, his face screwing up in amused confusion when he gets a text back saying don’t bother because Louis’ coming _up_.

There’s no ladder, nothing along the front of the house to help Louis scale it which is probably why Harry looks so doubtful of his claim. But, there is an old tree a few feet away whose low hanging branches could just about reach the landing of the second floor if only there was something to hold them up.

Initially, Louis’ new ability or power or whatever the hell it is scared the shit out of him. It felt like a nightmare because he hadn’t even meant to use it the night he killed their probation worker with nothing more than a twitch of his hand. After that whole fiasco it took Louis days to even consider trying it out again but when he finally did he realized that he _isn’t_ going mad as he had fully suspected, and that besides his telekinesis being potentially dangerous and fatal in some cases, it’s also kind of fun once you get the hang of it. For instance, helping get his siblings ready for school in the morning has never been easier now that Louis can make breakfast, pack lunches, _and_ do backpack checks all at once without ever having to put down his tea. Bedtime is also a breeze because he doesn’t even have to leave his bedroom to pick out pajamas or run multiple baths.

Community service is yet another area of Louis’ life where the ability to move things without touching them is, for lack of a better description, fucking _awesome_. It also could've kept Louis from getting community service to begin with, but that's neither here or there. His power is cool and convenient as hell, however, he doesn’t usually take advantage of it there since finishing tasks earlier than all the other boys often means getting assigned to new tasks that the other boys can’t join him in. Or more truthfully, tasks that one boy in particular can’t join him in. And that’s not to say that Louis’ partial to one over the others or that he’s picking favorites. Although the argument could totally be made since he spends most of his time throwing his heart down at said boy’s feet by claiming him as a work partner before anyone else can, adding to all the rude things scribbled across the busted mirrors and toilet stalls to make him laugh, and pinning him down in the grass to paint hearts and flowers on the back of his stupid orange jumpsuit that he actually looks _good_ in, but whatever. Louis never claimed innocence in any of this.

Louis pockets his phone, smirking to himself at the sudden panic on Harry’s face when he forgoes ringing the doorbell and turns to walk away. He doesn’t go far though which makes Harry’s smile return in full force. Just over to the old tree standing several meters over Louis’ head whose branches tremble to life the moment Louis imagines them stretching upwards and weaving together like a bridge arching to the window. It takes so much more concentration for Louis to manipulate big things instead of things like paintbrushes and backpacks, however he’s getting better at it every day. And from the looks of it, Louis isn’t the only one impressed with how much he has improved because Harry’s grin just keeps growing. Once he’s finished showing off, Louis climbs up the lowest hanging branches like steps on a ladder and then effortlessly crosses the gap between the tree and the house with help from the branches still held up by some invisible force keeping them there.

The lock on the window before him unlatches itself from the inside before Harry can even reach for it. He takes a couple of steps back to make room for Louis as he climbs into his friend’s house whom he was just so anxious to see again that it couldn’t wait till morning, gracefully landing on his feet right in front of him without so much as breaking a sweat. Or at least, that’s how Louis _hopes_ him showing up this way is coming off rather than him pulling a creepy stalker version of a break and enter… which may very well be why Harry is currently looking at him like an alien with two heads.

“Uh, hi there. Surprise?”

***                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ***

This window has been the focal point of Harry’s bedroom since he was a kid and thanks to his active imagination it has been everything from the moon on spaceship expeditions to a lighthouse for him and his rogue pirate crew of stuffed animals to plunder. When he got older, his window was simply a place for him to look out of while daydreaming, but never in all that time or all that imagining has a _boy_ ever climbed through it using a self-made ladder of tree branches he manipulated with his mind. That’s definitely a first. Not that he’s complaining.

“Uh, hi there,” Louis greets him with a small chuckle that stirs the butterflies at the pit of Harry’s stomach that have been lying dormant since he and Louis said goodbye just hours ago at the community center. “Surprise?” he says with an unsure shrug to match the thoughts currently running through his mind as Harry stands there watching him in silence, still a little dumbfounded by Louis standing in front of him after thinking about him and, well _, dancing_ about him a few minutes ago.

‘ _He’s not saying anything. Shit. Why isn’t he saying anything?_ _Fuck._ _I probably look insane right now for showing up like I own the place just to hang out. Annnd I just remembered he can hear me... You can hear me, can’t you? Jesus.’_

Harry chuckles at that, flattered that he’s the person Louis wanted to see tonight and not at all put out by his impromptu, yet totally appreciated visit.

‘ _Yep,’ Louis thinks. ‘He’s laughing. I look crazy, one-hundred percent. I broke in and he’s totally about to kick me out. I deserve it. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. There’s no way he wants me to-’_

“Would you like to come in?” Harry interjects before Louis can even think that Harry wouldn’t want him to. “Or, you know, _more_ in I guess since you’re already here,” he teases.

Louis snorts a laugh, the apples of his cheeks brightening as he shakes his head at himself.

“Sorry about that. I should’ve called first.”

“Eh, you texted instead,” Harry shrugs. “Still counts in my book.”

Louis looks unconvinced of this as he fondly rolls his eyes. “I broke into your house. That’s not exactly _legal_ , now, is it?”

“Eh, details,” Harry reasons with another unbothered shrug making Louis snort all over again. “I won’t tell New Probation Worker Kate if you won’t. And besides, I’m glad you did... I missed you too.”

Louis is still laughing from before, almost missing the part where Harry confirmed missing him out loud, in real time, and not just in the little fantasy Louis’ brain concocted and played on loop the whole trip here. His smile doesn’t go anywhere as his brain registers what he said. In fact, it just grows wider in his attempt to suppress it and play it cool.

“Oh. You did. Really?”

“Yeah. Of course” Harry grins, listening to Louis’ thoughts jumble, crash, and come to a complete stop when Harry takes a step forward into his space to relock the window just behind him.

“G-Good idea about the window. Er- Safety first,” Louis stutters out as Harry’s hand innocently brushes his shoulder, his thoughts racing again now that he’s actually breathing. ‘ _Fuck, he always smells so good. This room smells just like him. Don’t look at his lips. _Don’t look at his lips._ Do NOT_.’

Harry barely manages to suppress a grin when he pulls back from the window to find Louis openly staring at the very place he told himself not to.

“Louis?” he whispers as a pair of transfixed blue eyes follow the shape of his mouth around the word.

“…Hmm?” It’s a delayed response much like Louis’ realization that he just fucked up. ‘ _Fuck_.’

He recovers pretty quickly, blinking to meet Harry’s gaze with his usual smirk in place as if it never even faltered. “So, if memory serves, _someone_ in here was listening to music and playing air guitar a few minutes ago,” he teases.

“I do not nor have I ever played air guitar,” Harry insists. “That would be considered _lame_.”

' _Or incredibly fucking cute_ ,' Louis thinks to himself. “Oh. Right. Must’ve been that tall guy over there I saw dancing around. Sorry. My mistake.”

Harry frowns, glancing in the direction Louis is currently looking in and then busting out laughing at the stuffed giraffe left over from his childhood sitting at the top of his bookshelf.

“Friend of yours?” Louis tease with his eyes full of mirth.

“Sort of,” Harry reveals, “That’s Rocky and we’ve been best mates since I was two.”

“Hmm.” Louis gives an impressed nod followed by an indifferent, _"_ Wow, that long, huh?” that makes Harry crack a grin.

“Jealous?”

“Of a giraffe called Rocky?” he snorts. “Hardly.”

Louis looks about as self-assured as he sounds refusing to view Rocky as competition, and honestly, with how wildly Harry’s stomach flutters while watching him boldly venture further into his bedroom to have a better look, he would say Louis has every right to be that confident. He’d take Louis over Rocky (or anybody really) on any day.   

Somehow Louis must know that. He certainly grins at Harry over his shoulder like he does, taking careful inventory of all the photos and still frames on the walls.

“Wow. Did you take these?” he asks, he asks over his own thoughts gushing over how gorgeous they are.

“I did,” Harry answers with pride. “Photography is what I used to spend most of my free time doing, you know, before.”

“Ah, right. _Before_ you became a rebel and pissed on a cop,” Louis snorts with a glance over at Harry’s community service jumpsuit folded up on the dresser, still sporting traces of paint on it even after two cycles in the wash. “Good to know.”

Louis resumes his self-guided tour through Harry’s room as Harry trails along just a few steps ahead, explaining the stories behind all the little trinkets and things Louis wonders about in his head about until they reach Harry’s desk with his speakers still turned on and laptop screen going dim from not being used over the past few minutes.

“May I?” he asks aloud over the question he really wants to know ‘ _What were you in here dancing around to then?’_

It wasn’t so much of a _what_ as it was a _who_ , but Harry doesn’t say that.

He decides to let Louis figure that out on his own as he gives his permission with a quick nod, fighting the grin that wants to spread across his face when Louis allows the playlist of energetic, sappy love songs Harry found to pick up where it left off. Right in the middle of Calvin Harris’ _Feel So Close_.

He watches Louis’ face for a reaction since his thoughts are instantly filled with the song’s lyrics as he mentally sings along.

“Love this one,” he smiles over the music, leaning down to scroll through the other songs in the playlist. ‘ _What else have you got in here?’_

It’s just more of the same. Dozens of songs about falling that make Harry think of the very person who just used his power and climbed through a window just to see him.

“Wheatus, Paolo Nutini, The Killers, Ed Sheeran,” he lists off mostly to himself his eyes crinkling up when he gets to Shania Twain and sees that she’s been favorited. “Another friend of yours?”

“Shut it,” Harry snorts as he playfully elbows him in the side and gets a playful nudge right back. Like always, it turns into a full out war between them that leaves Harry almost breathless from cackling at how ridiculous they are. He’s forced to surrender when a bomb of socks magically comes flying at Harry’s face from the clothes pile on the floor. No doubt the handiwork of Louis who laughs about it until he’s red in the face. Harry’s cheeks are just as flushed, half-expecting another wave of dirty socks to the face or to hear Louis mentally or even verbally mocking him. What he gets instead is Louis’ fond smile and his silent prayers for Harry to want to kiss him as badly as he wants to kiss Harry right now.

Louis’ power is probably just as much to blame as Harry’s own desire to finally feel their lips touch, but something is drawing Harry to lean in closer than either of them has dared before.

_‘Holy shit. Holy shit, I think he’s really going to kiss me.’_

Once again, Louis’ thoughts race and jumble from Harry’s proximity alone, every one of them turning to white noise the moment Louis can’t take the anticipation of it any longer and surges forward.

Their mouths slot together and Louis’ hands tangle into the back of his hair, stirring those butterflies from before into an outright frenzy.

He pulls away after a minute, grinning as wide as Harry when he slowly leans back in to make Harry’s heartbeat race even faster than before.

“You probably heard me praying like hell for that, didn’t you?” Louis sighs in mock disappointment with his own unruly brain.

Harry did hear him, nodding in answer as all the static from before fades and Louis’ thoughts resurface.

 _‘I’m falling so fucking fast. Fallen. I’m already done for when it comes to him._ ’

Louis sighs and rolls his eyes at himself, blushing when he realizes Harry just heard that too.

“Sorry my stupid brain won’t shut up. It keeps letting you in on all my would-be secrets. Can’t even pretend to play it cool,” he jokes.

Harry rather enjoys hearing the sentiments in Louis’ head. He likes him candid. Especially when everything Louis thinks is pretty much exactly what Harry feels.

“I can let you in on a secret of mine too,” Harry offers. “You know, to even it up a bit.”

“Alright, then,” Louis agrees with his blue eyes alight. “ _Spill._ Tell me a secret.”

Harry tells him several.

“I take the late train to the community center every day just so I can walk with you the rest of the way, I love when Niall calls dibs on Liam for jobs because that means I get dibs on you, I love that you committed a felony to come see me tonight, every song you saw on that playlist reminds me of you somehow, and I’ve been done for since day one.”

“ _Wow_ ,” Louis says once Harry finishes revealing all his secrets in one big breath. “And I thought I had it bad with enjoying toilet duty,” he teases before connecting their lips again.


	4. Chapter 4

One Week Later

The outside of the community center doesn’t look half as bad as it used to, Liam thinks to himself as he approaches it. All the hours they’ve spent tidying up this shit hole over the past few weeks haven’t been in vain. It still needs a few minor fixes of course, otherwise the four of them wouldn’t be coming here every day, but the place has started to actually look _nice._ It’s hard to believe they’ll be free to leave it in just a week. When Liam actually stops to think about how much fun he’s had here despite it all, it’s quite sad to think of never coming back.

He walks up the steps two at a time before bursting through the double doors and freezing at the sight of Niall sitting in the middle of the lobby frowning, and staring straight ahead as if his eyes might burst into flame if he dare to look elsewhere.  It’s things like this he’ll miss the most about this place.

“They in there again?” Liam snorts, confident in his guess when Niall carefully rolls his eyes to avoid all the walls in the room. Particularly the ones to left of him housing the locker rooms.

“Of course. _Always_ ,” Niall mutters in answer. “Like fucking rabbits those two.”

Liam can’t exactly say he disagrees with Niall’s statement. In the week since they’ve officially become a couple Louis and Harry have spent more time messing around in the locker rooms than doing anything else. Liam’s just grateful he has a power that protects him from watching them in action whenever the mood strikes them. Which is _a lot_.

“It’s not fucking fair. _You_ get to stand there all oblivious to the fact that they’re being gross against _your_ locker, while I had to walk into it without so much as a warning. It’s bullshit. I want a new power. Or at least a fair fucking trade. Like your power for instance…” Niall continues complaining, and Liam means to listen, but suddenly the room around him goes silent as he’s transported…to the exact same place as before.

Liam turns around at the sound of someone coming through the double doors behind him. The glare from the sun outside masks the tall figure silhouetted in the doorway making it impossible to see who it is or why Liam feels so unsettled by their presence.  

Liam blinks himself into the present to where he and Niall are the only two people in the room and the latter is still going on about powers.

“Like, I don’t know why I couldn’t get the gift of flight. Or making money appear out of thin air. Or at least fucking time travel so I could go back three days ago and stop myself seeing Louis’ bare- What?” Niall stops his rant when he notices Liam frowning to himself as per usual when he can’t figure out what his power is trying to tell him. “Shit. Did you just have a vision? Let me guess. You saw them in ten-thousand years, disgustingly in love, and still…wait for it. Fucking like rabbits,” he deadpans. “At least now you’ve seen Louis’ arse too so you know my pain.”

“I didn’t see Louis’ arse.”

“Christ. You saw _Harry’s_? Jesus, I don’t know which is worse.”

“ _No._ I didn’t see anyone’s arse or any other body parts for that matter,” Liam huffs in frustration, unsure why he feels that way in the first place about another dumb vision when he has them all the time. He guesses it’s because this one didn’t seem so dumb. It felt different and almost important somehow. Like a warning instead of just a peek into what will be.

“So… if it wasn’t H and Lou, what did you see?” Niall asks with a much more serious expression.

Liam replays the vision in his head several times to try and make sense of it, shrugging in answer when he still comes up blank. “I don’t know what I saw.” Or rather, _whom_.

***                                                                                                                                                                                                               ***

At this point, Harry isn’t quite sure how long he and Louis have been tucked away in the men’s locker room together. In their own little bubble doing all the things they probably shouldn’t given their current location at _community service_ where they could be found at any moment or even seen through the walls as Niall likes to gripe and complain, but so what? Being a little naughty has never stopped them before. Actually, breaking the rules is precisely what got them both here in the first place. And thank goodness for that.

“ _Fuck, Haz_ ,” a shaky voice breathes when Harry pushes his boyfriend’s shoulder against the row of lockers behind him to lick into Louis’ mouth the way he likes.

‘ _Christ, he’s so fucking hot,_ ’ Louis thinks almost as loud as he’s panting from the feel of Harry’s mouth and his thigh grinding against the front of his jumpsuit. ‘ _He’s killing me.’_

“You’re killing me, you know that, yeah?” he says aloud.

And, yeah. Harry knows. Touching Louis the way he loves and pressing every one of his buttons just right are just a couple of the amazing perks of being able to read his boyfriend’s mind.

Now that he’s gotten the hang of his power, Harry has been making a real effort to protect people’s privacy. Only listening in when necessary or invited to do so, but it’s tough to block out people’s inner voices. Especially when they’re as loud and strong as Louis’ is right now silently moaning, praying, and swearing to himself all at once as Harry happily destroys him piece by beautiful piece.

Harry bites down on the plump lip beneath his tongue just because he can and gets a sharp inhale in response. It sounded almost pained so Harry wonders if perhaps he took it a step too far. He gets his answer when suddenly he’s pulled and flipped by some invisible force until _his_ shoulders are the ones pressed against the lockers and his lips are receiving the same treatment.

“Could’ve just asked me nicely to switch places with you,” Harry teases from where Louis now has his head tilted back by the same invisible hand, taking his time sucking bruises into his skin.

“Could have,” Louis smirks against him. “But where’s the fun in that?”

The hot breaths from Louis’ laughter move from Harry’s neck up to his right ear where a pair of teeth playfully sink into the lobe. Harry gasps at the sting, his chest heaving as the zipper of his jumpsuit starts sliding down his chest without either of them touching it. “Now, you’re just showing off.”

“So?” Louis chuckles into his ear. “Is that a complaint, love?”

No, it most certainly is _not_.

Louis continues nipping at his ear, eventually returning to Harry’s lips and letting his mind wander to things so wicked they make even Harry’s legs tremble. He listens in to all the dirty thoughts racing through his boyfriend’s mind that seem quite sequential and orderly for someone as flustered as he obviously is with his dick so hard between them. Every move he chooses to make is mirrored by some phantom version of it already in his mind, and it’s only after Harry’s hands are pinned at either side of his head just after Louis imagines it does Harry realize what exactly he’s eavesdropping on.

This isn’t the first time Harry’s been crowded against these lockers, at least not in Louis' mind anyway. Louis has fantasized about him and this moment, and multiple times at that. Harry can hear precisely what Louis’ brain wants to happen next; the seed of the idea loud, demanding, and practically begging to be born into reality, so Harry obliges by swiftly dropping to his knees.

“Woah. Wh-What are you doing?” Louis gulps as the zipper of his jumpsuit is lowered and Harry has a perfect view of him hard and glistening at his tip.

“This is what happens next right? In your fantasy?” Harry grins up at him, watching him nod and his bright blue eyes darken.

Louis’ thoughts are a beautiful collision of swears and vulgarities when Harry takes him into his hand and cut out completely once his dick is wedged deep down Harry’s throat. Just the way he’s always wanted.

*

They stumble out into the corridor a few minutes later, laughing with every step they take together as they try to squeeze in one last kiss before they have to get to work. Their lips part just before they reach the lobby, but they’re still connected, their interlocked hands swinging between them as they greet their friends.

“Morning, lads! Lovely day,” Louis chirps despite the full-on glare Niall is aiming in their direction. Which, Harry can admit is probably well deserved, however the expression on Liam’s face is harder to understand because his frown is one of confusion.

“Li? Something wrong?”

“No? Er- I’m not too sure actually,” he answers after a beat even though it’s obvious something is bothering him. His brow is all furrowed the way it usually is after a vision he doesn’t quite understand.

“He had a vision while you two were _indisposed_ ,” Niall reports, sounding less bitter now that there’s no danger of him seeing bare skin. “He said it was strange.”

“Strange how?” Louis frowns next to him. “What did you see?”

Liam opens his mouth and closes it a few times like he’s having difficulty describing it. Harry isn’t sure if he’ll be any better at interpreting Liam’s vision but the least he can do is give it a shot.

“May I?” Harry asks. “Er- If you don’t mind of course.”

“No, please. Have at it,” Liam says with a vague gesture towards his head.

It takes a moment to break through the mental block Harry built to stop himself spying on people’s thoughts without permission, but the moment he does, he’s transported to some time in the future. The very near future as far as Harry can tell since Liam, Niall, Louis, and himself are all standing in the same relative spots around the lobby. They’re not alone for long though. Someone pushes through the double doors of the community center, but it’s so sunny in the background that Harry can’t make out who is crowding the doorway so ominously.

The vision fades as quickly as it came and Harry’s back in real time where Louis is still holding his hand, Niall is twisting around in his stolen swivel chair, and Liam is blinking at him with hopeful expectance.

“Well?” he checks, a disappointed sigh leaving him when Harry shakes his head in answer.

“Sorry, Li. I’m not sure either.”

 And they don’t get any more time to figure it out when their probation worker Kate chooses that moment to burst into the lobby with her usually bright smile.

“Morning boys!”

“Morning,” they all chime in unison, moving to stand in the center of the room like always to hear all the duties that await them today.

“Busy day ahead as I’m sure you can guess,” their probation worker chirps which Harry quite appreciates. As do the other boys, though none more so than Niall who frequently daydreams about bringing her wild flowers, proposing to her beside beautiful waterfalls, and strolling down tropical sandy beaches with their brood of children in tow whenever she’s speaking. Niall has never voiced his little crush aloud so Harry assumes those thoughts are ones he’d like to keep private, even if they are quite fun to listen in on. _And,_ it's also completely obvious that he's into her.

“So today you’re going to be finishing up a few housekeeping things that can be divvied up pretty easily like some painting outside, but most importantly all the lovely flowers donated to brighten up this place even more are arriving today so you’ll spend this afternoon transplanting them for the grand re-opening next week!”

“That’s great news. Fantastic,” Niall pipes up from the end of the line. “I love gardening and being outdoors. The more dirt the better.” Harry, Liam, and Louis all stare down the line at their friend who gets huffy when the wind so much as tousles his hair the wrong way or the sun shines too bright.

“ _Liar_ ,” Louis snorts, quieting when Harry nudges him in the side despite being just as tempted to laugh along with him and Liam. Luckily, their probation worker doesn’t seem to notice.

“That’s excellent,” Kate beams at Niall. “Lucky you, getting to do something you enjoy while helping others at the same time.”

“Well, as you know, helping others is always my _top_ priority,” Niall replies making Louis snort again.

“Oh, and here I thought it was sounding like a complete twa-”

“So, boys, that’s the schedule for today!” Kate interrupts, her eyebrows knitting together as she flips through her notepad. “Oh, right! One more thing. I’ve finally got someone to come take care of all those ants that keep getting in from outside.”

A phone ringing in Kate’s office steals her attention away. “Ooh. I have to go answer that, but he should be here any minute. Just send him my way if you see him!” she calls over her shoulder before shutting her office door behind her.

The four of them are left standing around the lobby in a way that feels familiar somehow but isn’t. And it’s not until the double doors creak open to reveal the shadowed figure from Liam’s vision behind them that Harry realizes the reason it feels like they’ve been here before is because they have.

***                                                                                                                                                                                                                    ***

Everyone turns at the sound of the double doors opening, including Louis although he has no idea who the hell is standing in the entrance of the lobby. The glare from the sun is too bright to make out anything until the person takes a step forward, enough to make his uniform visible along with the logo for Best Defense Pest Control across the front if it.

His dark hair is half hidden beneath a baseball cap bearing the same logo. It’s pulled down so low that Louis can hardly make out the features of his face, but there’s something about his dark eyes and the crooked grin he sports as he takes another step forward that instantly makes Louis distrust him. And he’s not the only one it seems. Liam and Harry have been watching him closely since he stepped into the lobby and even Niall seems slightly on edge too.

“Where’s Kate?”

“Don’t know. It depends on who’s asking?” Niall quips. The man blinks back at his quick response, grinning wider to himself when sees everyone in the room giving him similar looks of uncertainty.

“Where are my manners? I’m Brandon, the exterminator someone here named Kate requested?”

“I’m in here!” someone yells. They all turn towards the voice to see Kate poking her head out of her office while still on the phone. “Come on back.”

Brandon’s grin never falters as he sidesteps the four of them. In fact, it’s almost smug, making him look even more annoying on his way to the office.

“Anybody else feel the distinct urge to kick that guy in the balls or is it just me?” Louis asks once he’s gone. Everyone else seems to be in agreement without even having to say anything.

“That’s the guy from Liam’s vision,” Harry reveals with suspicion evident in his features. “I don’t know what it is. I just get a weird vibe from him.”

“Me too. I feel kind of weird about leaving him alone with Kate.” Liam says with a slight frown. “I mean, I’m sure she can take care of herself, but still.”

“She’s alright.” Everyone turns toward Niall staring a little hole into the office door that he can see through. “They’re just going over a map of all the areas he needs to treat.”

Good, Louis thinks to himself. The sooner he gets rid of all the ants, the sooner they get rid of him.

*

Digging around in the dirt has always been a favorite pastime of Louis’. He always loved it as a kid and even afterwards due to all his younger siblings sharing a similar penchant for getting as filthy as possible. He hasn’t had much time for that sort of thing these days now that they’re all older, but it’s fun to relive it. Even more so while ducking to avoid chunks of soil flying at him from Harry’s side of the garden they’re all constructing.  

It’s been a full on war ever since Louis discovered an earthworm wiggling around in his part of the flower patch and placed it on Liam’s shoulder. The next minutes that ensued were complete chaos of course which ended with Liam and Niall each bowing out with a truce. Harry would never give up so easily, and now Louis’ cowering behind a giant bag of soil as a result.

“Alright, alright, I concede! You win!” he shouts, cackling as the last few lumps of dirt come raining down on him. The onslaught stops and eventually Louis peeks over the top of his makeshift shield expecting more dirt bombs, but gets a bright yellow truce tulip and his boyfriend’s dimpled smile instead.

Louis fondly rolls his eyes, accepting defeat and his losers tulip from the beautiful, smug little shit still grinning at him. “Gee, thanks.”

“Why, of course, my love! Don’t mention it,” he shrugs.

Louis still feels himself smiling long after Harry blinks away from him to get back to work. However, the smile fades from Louis’ face when he notices he’s had an audience this whole time.

It’s the exterminator, Brandon, staring from ten meters away when he should be working just like them. Louis doesn’t give a polite grin as he would to most near strangers he happens to make eye contact with. Mostly, because he doesn’t like the guy for some reason he still can’t exactly put his finger on.

“I swear that guy is so weird. Gives me the creeps,” Liam says from his section of the flower garden when he notices the two of them caught in a weird stare off with one another.

Louis totally agrees but doesn’t say so since Brandon finally decides to continue spraying the side of the building with pesticide _without_ being a rude twat. There’s still a whole wheelbarrow full of flowers left for them to transplant to the ground so Louis needs to get back to work too, almost forgetting the most important flower of all; the bright yellow tulip Harry gave him just seconds ago now lying brown and wilted in the palm of Louis’ hand as if all the life’s been sucked right out of it.

“Aw, no, babe,” Harry laments when he notices Louis inspecting the dead blossom. “What happened?”

“I…don’t know? It was fine just a second ago; _perfect_ ,” Louis frowns down at it with the same bizarre sense of unease he has felt all day and only intensifies when he blinks up from his dead flower to find a big smirk on Brandon’s face.

***                                                                                                                                                                                                             ***

Niall stares at the row of new vending machines before him, torn over whether he wants something gummy or chocolatey to go with the sandwich he brought from home. A couple of weeks ago, these vending machines weren’t even here so Niall would typically bring sweet snacks with him, but now there’s so many options. He scans over each one, taking his time to really think about which choice would pair best with bacon and roast turkey.

In the end, it’s Maltesers.

After being outside most of the day, Niall decides to take a break from all the dirt and the sunshine to have his lunch indoors. He takes a seat on a bench just outside the locker rooms. He wouldn’t dare eat _inside_ of them after everything he’s had the misfortune of seeing go down in there lately. There isn’t enough bleach in the world.

Niall takes a few bites of his sandwich and then chases them with a couple of Maltesers because he can never resist having a bit of dessert with his meal, _or_ resist the urge to want to punch something every time he feels the weighted gaze of their ever-so-charming exterminator. Kind of like right now as Brandon rounds the corner and starts down the corridor that, last Niall checked, wasn’t infested with ants.

“You lost?”

He doesn’t receive a reply. Just a narrowing of a dark pair of eyes at odds with the sick little grin tugging at Brandon’s lips as he continues down the corridor, going out of his way to ‘accidentally’ step all over Niall’s shoes in the process.

“Oi! You could say excuse me,” Niall calls after him and still gets no response. “ _Prick_.”

Niall returns to the lunch he was just enjoying before Dickhead appeared, ready to take another bite of his delicious bacon and roast turkey sandwich that suddenly smells like a rotting corpse when he brings it up to his mouth. He immediately snatches it away, grimacing at the putrid sandwich meat rotting between two moldy slices of bread.

It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not like enough time has passed between now and thirty seconds ago for an entire perfectly good sandwich to go bad. It’s only as Niall sits there staring at his ruined lunch trying to figure out what the hell could’ve caused this that he realizes the only thing separating his sandwich from before to the now decaying mess in his hands. Or rather, the only _person_.

*

Grudgingly, Niall takes his food with him to go tell the other boys about the arsehole he suspects did something to make his fucking food rot, as crazy and also not so crazy as that sounds. He realizes on his way down the corridor that his sandwich wasn’t the only casualty here when he finds his Maltesers so withered and mold-ridden they’ve turned a sickly shade of grey. Niall also realizes Brandon is conveniently nowhere to be found once he reaches the lobby. But, he can see Liam, Louis, and Harry standing just outside of it through the thick metal of the double doors.

They’re all crowded at the top of the stairs and staring down at something that has managed to catch and hold their attentions. Niall can’t see what it is from his view inside the community center, pushing through the double doors with his ruined lunch in hand to join them.

“So, Brandon’s a complete dick like we guessed,” Niall says in greeting. “Weirdo did something to make my lunch go bad _and_ he stepped on my shoes. On _purpose!_ ” The other boys are sure to have heard all that, and yet none of them are reacting in the scandalized manner he expected. All three of their gazes still fixed along the community center grounds. “Oi, what the hell are we staring-?”

The question dies on Niall’s lips... much like the flock of birds and insects currently littering the ground before them.

“What the hell happened out here?” he demands.

“Don’t know, but whatever it is killed the garden too,” Liam answers. “Every flower we planted today is dead.”

“Just like the one Haz gave me earlier,” Louis adds bitterly. “It was fine one minute and then the next…” He makes a sweeping gesture to the all the death surrounding them.

It's obvious what's happening here. Niall sees the one connection between all of these events but he doesn’t want to be the crazy one to say it out loud. Harry and Louis’ flower, the garden, a shit ton of birds, and Niall’s lunch have all gone from perfect to decaying in the blink of an eye. Funny how that never happened before today when _someone_ showed up.

“Say it,” Harry says out of nowhere, turning towards Niall. “Go on,” he pushes with a sigh. “Everyone’s thinking it anyway. Literally.”

He guesses Harry would know.

“Brandon’s a psychopathic, evil arsehole going around killing all that’s pure and good in the world including Maltesers?”

“Yup,” Harry confirms. “Pretty much read all our minds.”

“Yeah, b-but _how_?” Liam frowns. “I mean, it’s obvious he’s the one doing all this. It didn’t start until he got here, but again, how?”

Louis takes the liberty of explaining it to him. “I’m guessing he does it the same way I can move things without touching them, Haz can actually read minds, Niall sees through walls of cement, and you saw Brandon coming and knew he was up to no good before he even got here,” Louis sums up with a shrug.

“The storm,” Liam sighs just as Niall thinks it too.

Niall had wondered if there were other people affected by it. If there were others who woke up after being struck by lightning and could suddenly do things that couldn’t be explained. Now, he’s got an answer.

“It had to be the storm,” Louis continues. “What else could give someone the power to do _this_ kind of damage? I mean, how fucked up do you have to be to get a power that kills things?”

“He _is_ an exterminator,” Harry points out. “It’s kind of his job to kill things. Just probably not _these_ types of things,” he grimaces at the graveyard before them because the things Brandon’s destroying certainly aren’t pests. “Thankfully I don’t see him lurking around anymore. Where do you think he is now?"

Louis scoffs sarcastically at the question. “Oh, you know, he’s probably somewhere sucking the precious life out of something else he shouldn’t be. Something beautiful and innocent and good like a litter of puppies or some bloody butterflies-”

“…Or Kate?” Liam interrupts with his brow furrowed in worry and that knowing look in his eyes that usually follows one of his visions of the future.

Shit.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Everyone’s footsteps thud against the concrete as they head for the entrance of the community center. The double doors open to admit them, all thanks to Louis whose face is more worried than Harry has seen it in long time. All of their faces are, including Harry’s after seeing Liam’s vision of what’s going to happen to Kate if they don’t find her before Brandon does.

“Fuck. When was the last time anyone saw her?” Niall demands.

Harry listens as his friend’s mind goes back to a few minutes before when he passed through the lobby.

 _‘I didn’t see her in here. Didn’t see anybody. Not even inside the office,’_ Niall thinks just as loudly as Louis and Liam mentally retrace their steps.

“She came outside earlier to see the how we were doing with the garden, but that was forever ago,” Liam offers as his vision of a withered, lifeless Kate runs through his mind again. ‘ _Fuck. We have to find her.'_

“She’s got to be here somewhere. We’ll find her,” Louis says confidently when his thoughts are anything but. ‘ _That’s not good if  hours ago was the last time any of us saw her. Didn’t she mention going to do inventory or going looking for something at the time?’_ he thinks, though his thoughts turn guilty a beat later. _‘Damn it, I should’ve been paying more attention. I should’ve realized what Brandon was, and why didn’t I just fucking LISTEN to what Kate said?’_

“This isn’t your fault, babe,” Harry quietly assures his boyfriend with a squeeze to his hand. “None of this is _any_ of our faults,” he tells the group. “This is all Brandon and we’re going to find him and stop him.”

“I’m going to kill him,” Niall mutters as he stares holes through every wall surrounding them, however, it’s a sound coming from directly above them that silences the room and makes everyone look up.

The rest of them can’t see whatever Niall sees happening two floors above them, but Harry can guess that it’s not good from the series of panicked thoughts running through Niall’s mind as they all head for the roof.

*

Besides the occasional task or sunbathing session during breaks on nice days, the rooftop of the community center is generally deserted. The last time Harry came up here was the evening he and Louis managed to sneak away from the group for a view of the sunset over the river. It had been a nice day then. A perfect day. Not like now as the four of them creep up the narrow staircase at the back of the building that will hopefully lead them to Kate in time.

“See anything?” someone whispers behind him once they reach the top of the building.

Harry shakes his head in answer. The same wobbly chairs, an old rug in various stages of unravelling, and the faded sofa that used to sit in the lobby are all he sees from his half-hidden view. Well, that and more dead birds of course, but not the two people they’re looking for.

“No Kate or Brandon,” Harry relays, looking amongst the other items kept on the roof like surplus equipment covered in plastic and the row of brand new mirrors resting against the ledge of the building ready to be installed now that all the bathrooms are pristine and graffiti free.

“Well, where the hell did they go?” Niall huffs, not even bothering to whisper anymore as he stands next to Harry to have a look himself. “What, he’s a magician now as well as a mass murderer?”

No sooner than Niall says the words does the patch of weeds growing between the cracks in the roof beneath his feet shrivel and die. Niall instantly jumps back in line with everybody else to avoid suffering the same fate.

All their gazes move from the withered dandelions to land on the dark pair of eyes responsible for their sudden death watching the four of them from across the way. However, it’s the terrified person cowering behind him that Harry can’t tear his gaze away from. He hasn’t seen anyone look that scared since it was their safety in danger the day of the storm.

“Nobody moves,” Brandon orders unnecessarily since they’re all frozen anyway with everyone’s thoughts echoing the same desire to rescue Kate from Brandon but also knowing a single wrong move could cost them everything.

‘ _My vision hasn’t changed. We’re here, but she’s still in danger. WHY hasn’t it changed?_ ’

Harry can hear Liam panicking on his right while Niall’s mind creates dozens of plans to get them to Kate and then swiftly abandons each one because they all end with someone getting hurt or worse. The plan Louis’ thinking of on Harry’s left keeps everyone’s safety in mind, but it’s still a hell of a risk.

‘ _I could send him flying back against the ledge before he even knows what happened. If anything, it’d knock him unconscious so we can get away.’_

It’s the best plan they’ve got besides Harry’s idea of trying to reason with Brandon. Harry can feel his boyfriend tensing up on his left side, ready to do whatever is necessary to protect everyone on the rooftop, however Brandon catches the motion, turning his dark gaze towards the new threat.

“Don’t,” Harry whispers, gently placing his hand over Louis’ to stop him doing something that might get him killed. Louis’ expression is determined as he mentally argues that he can do this, but is more resolved to listen when he notices the fear in Harry’s eyes.

Brandon doesn’t miss that either, grinning as he looks between the two of them and their silent conversation.

“ _Interesting_ ,” he muses aloud, but it's his bitter and angry inner-voice that makes chills run down Harry's spine. ' _I'm just the person everybody calls when they want something dead anyway. At least now I get to choose what I kill, and today it's these five._ '  “Either the two of you have the strongest connection of any couple in the world, or I was right all along and someone else over there has a _power_.”

It’s quiet for a couple of beats. No one wants to say anything, especially with their probation worker frowning in confusion at the mere mention of the word.

"You don't have to do this. Please. We can help," Harry tries but that just earns him more fury from Brandon. 

“We’ve all got powers,” Liam assures him. “It happened the day of the storm just like I’m sure it happened for you...”

Still nothing. Their attempts only seem to make him angrier and Niall less patient. 

“Yeah, we've all got powers so that means we’re not afraid of you and we’re all on an even playing field. So, why don’t you just let Kate go and no one here has to get hurt?” Niall quips while taking a brave step forward that results in yet another dandelion patch casualty just centimeters from his feet.

***                                                                                                                                                                                                             ***

“No!”

The shrill cry rings out as Niall narrowly misses being killed. It takes Liam a moment to realize the sound came from the opposite side of the rooftop. More specifically, from Kate.

Niall wasn’t hurt, but he very easily could’ve been. And apparently, butchering the community center’s new garden before it was even completed, nearly killing one of her delinquents _twice,_ and also being held against her will is about all Kate is willing to take from Brandon. She stands up from the corner she had been cowering in, and almost like an instant replay of the vision Liam had before, a single look from Brandon makes her body stiff and rigid as she falls backward onto the roof.

Liam blinks at their lifeless probation worker praying for the present to come creeping in as it usually does after a vision, however, nothing happens because this _is_ the present. She’s really gone. They couldn’t save her.

There’s another voice ringing out on the rooftop now, but this one belongs to Niall, angry and loud as he charges across the roof. He avoids Brandon’s death glare thanks to the various pieces of furniture Louis moves to shield him and the directions Harry shouts from behind one of the giant mirrors with Louis, able to hear Brandon’s thoughts and predict his next move before he’s had time to make it. Liam hurries to duck down behind a mirror too, feeling useless as he tries to force a vision to come that shows they’ll be alright.

Not being able to control his power like the others has always been frustrating but it’s never mattered as much as it does right now with all their lives in danger.

“Come on, come on, come on,” Liam chants to himself, watching the old sofa Louis floats between Brandon and Niall just in time to protect their friend from getting the life sucked out of him.

It’s not the first close call he’s seen. If at any point, Harry’s directions had been off from reading Brandon’s mind or if Louis’ aim hadn’t been spot on it would mean the destruction of Niall instead of just an old sofa. It’s not until Louis starts running out of things large enough to use as shields that he uses his power on Brandon instead, knocking him back against the ledge so hard he looks dazed by the force of the invisible set of hands that pushed him.

“You’re going to pay for that!” Brandon threatens. He takes aim at Niall again who is closer to him now than ever. There’s nothing left to shield Niall besides spare mirrors no one is hiding behind. Luckily, one flies between the two of them at the perfect moment, but instead of the glass shattering to a million pieces it’s Brandon who cries out in pain as his power backfires, leaving him as still and lifeless as everything else he’s destroyed.

The scene freezes before Liam and rewinds. He blinks to find Brandon still alive and well and trying to kill them all, and Niall being saved by the sofa that’s still in one piece. It’s the miracle he had been praying for, and not only did he get a new vision but it also showed him exactly what they need to do to stop their enemy.

Liam already knows what’s going to happen next when Brandon goes soaring backwards against the roof’s ledge. Niall sees the opportunity to advance and takes it despite Brandon’s threat of making them pay. A quick look over at Louis reveals him looking panicked as he realizes his options for shields for Niall have dwindled to nothing.

“The mirrors!” Liam shouts at him. “Use a mirror!”

Louis doesn’t hesitate, using his power to put a reflective barrier between Brandon and Niall at the perfect moment. Everyone except Liam cowers in anticipation of the explosion of glass that never comes. A piercing cry is the only sound that fills the air, all the life draining from Brandon’s body the moment he catches sight of his own reflection.

He lands at Niall’s feet all shriveled and grey. Brandon’s gone, making Liam’s vision come full-circle.

“It’s over,” Liam sighs in relief, fearing he may have spoken too soon when they see movement on the opposite side of the roof. Niall’s too close for comfort and there’s nothing left up here to protect them all besides a couple of extra mirrors. They’ll have no choice but to make a run for it if Brandon attacks again, but the longer they all stare they realize Brandon isn’t the person stirring back to life. By some miracle, it’s Kate.

***                                                                                                                                                                                                              ***

Niall crouches down to Kate’s level amid his friends’ claims of the impossible as they all crowd around them.

“Holy shit, she’s waking up!” Louis says as Niall watches the color slowly return to Kate’s skin.

“So are all the birds,” Liam adds grinning as a few hop onto the ledge and fly off as if their journey was never interrupted.

Niall is happy for all the birds and the plants and whatever else Brandon harmed, but his biggest concern is Kate still lying on the ground, but looking considerably less dead than before. Actually, she now looks as beautiful as always. 

“I can hear her again,” Harry says somewhere behind him. “She’s back. Just unconscious. _Dreaming_."

Niall doesn’t exactly believe that until he notices her brow furrowing and sees her eyelids twitching.

“Kate?” he tries, his heart stopping and then restarting again when their probation worker blinks herself awake. She looks confused about where she is and how she got there, immediately wincing at the light while holding her palm against the part of her head that must’ve hit the roof when she fell.

“God. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck or something,” she groans as she sits up. “And, I had the weirdest dream about the exterminator I called having super powers, but- but then you all had powers too and you were trying to save me, and there were dead things _everywh-_.”

The dandelions are standing tall and green again and the birds have all flown off when Kate does a quick scan of the rooftop, but it’s impossible for her to miss the withered, grey body lying just inches away from them. Her eyes go wide and her mouth forms several questions but doesn't succeed in asking any of them.

“But, what did-? How did he-? My- My _dream_ was-” she stammers with wide, frightened eyes that calm when Niall reaches out to hold her hand.

“Wasn’t actually a dream...” he sighs with a shrug. “It was real.”

“Yes, but, you’re safe now,” Harry quickly speaks up, probably answering some panicked question Kate asked in her mind. “Niall knew you were up here and that's how we knew you were in danger. We all came here with him to find you.”

She turns to Niall with curiosity, a small grin tugging at her lips that has Niall’s stomach turning cartwheels. He’s been wishing for Kate to look at him like that since the first day he saw her.

“Really? How did you know where I was?” 

“Er- Me? Oh. I, uh- I saw you,” he answers, deciding to just go with the truth since whatever lie he could come up with would sound just as insane. “Um, through the floor... From inside the building.”

Kate's eyebrows furrow faster than Niall would've thought possible.

“He’s not crazy, Kate. And, yes, I _can_ hear you so you’re not crazy either. Neither am I,” Harry assures her gently. She must be asking more questions than Harry can answer at one time because he soon smiles and claps a hand over Niall’s shoulder. “Niall here will fill you in. And get you some ice for your head. He’d be happy to.”

Niall nods since he was literally just thinking of doing that, but he didn’t think his friends were going to leave him in the process.

“Of course I’ll take care of her, but- but where are you lot going?”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s still one dead body on this roof that’s going to raise a lot more questions than we got about Moody if we leave it here, and it’s going to be dark soon so we better get moving,” Louis mutters, stooping down to dig a pair of car keys out of Brandon’s pocket.

Right. The dead guy. How could he forget?

“I’ll grab a shovel and meet you under the overpass in ten?” Niall guesses, getting three nods in response and an even more confused pair of eyes fixed on him from the random mention of the overpass hardly anyone ever uses. This is going to take a while. “Er- Maybe more like twenty,” Niall amends, offering his hand once again to help Kate onto her feet. His stomach does a full flip when Kate accepts it and doesn’t let go even after she’s standing up.

“So, somehow Brandon killed things with his eyes, Harry can read minds, and you can magically see through floors?” she frowns, her words ending in unconvinced laugher. “How is any of that even possible?”

Niall laughs too, because he still can hardly believe those things are true.

“I see through floors and also walls. Roofs are my specialty,” he jokingly corrects her. “It’s helpful, but not always fun. People do some really weird things when they think they can’t be seen.” Or, in some cases, they don’t give a shit and carry on regardless, though he’s pretty sure that’s just specific to Harry and Louis. His response wasn’t very clarifying based on the way Kate’s still looking at him like he’s got two heads. Perhaps he should just start at the beginning.

“So, um, there was this crazy storm a few weeks ago…”

***                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ***

                                                                                                                                Two Weeks Later  

Harry checks his hair in the reflection of one of the cracked mirrors in the men’s locker room, snorting when he’s hip-checked out of the way so his boyfriend can do the same. Louis’ hair is more of a mess, mostly because Harry can never keep his hands off it, but he thinks it looks great that way. Louis looks great all the time.

“See you in a minute?” Louis grins. The question comes with a kiss to Harry’s jaw followed by another to his nose which just makes them both laugh.

“I’ll be right there,” Harry promises, still smiling like an idiot even after Louis has left him.

Eventually, Harry heads out into the corridors of the community center as well, no longer resenting them or his jumpsuit as much as he guessed he might at the start of this thing. Especially now that everyone’s original six weeks of community service has been extended for six more due to the unexplained destruction of property equipment that happened up on the rooftop a couple of weeks ago, but it’s better than all of them ending up dead from creepy Brandon’s death glare so he’ll take it. 

There’s no one in the lobby when Harry finally gets there but he can hear people talking and thinking on the other side of the double doors so he heads that way instead. Outside, he finds Louis and Liam on the front steps of the community center having a conversation Harry’s heard a billion times.

“I only see things in the _immediate_ future. It doesn’t work that way,” Liam explains only for Louis to roll his eyes as per usual.

“Yeah, it doesn’t work that way _so far_ , but we don’t even know your power’s full potential yet! You could probably see me becoming a billionaire or civilization living on another Earth and finally mastering intergalactic time travel. You could literally have all the secrets to life in your head right now and you don’t even know it!”

Liam doesn’t seem convinced, giving Louis a flat face in response. “You becoming a billionaire is _ambitious_. And, time travel isn’t a real thing. You do know that, right?”

“Says the man who can _see the fucking future_.”

“Except intergalactic time travel has nothing to do with that?” Liam argues.

“And thanks to your pessimistic stubbornness, we’ll never know,” Louis quips back.

Harry manages to hold in his laughter, intervening in their discussion before it ends in a wrestling match. Again. “Liam doesn’t have to show us the secrets to life if he doesn’t want to…” Harry says diplomatically, catching a muttered ‘ _Good, cause I don’t know HOW to_ ,’ that Liam chooses to keep to himself. “Just like _you_ don’t have to use your power to bring us stuff we’re too lazy to get up and grab for ourselves.”

Though, it is a pretty useful trick. Especially when it’s just the two of them and putting on clothes to get things like food and water is out of the question.

The sound of a car approaching steals the attention away from the subject of their powers.

“Ah, look who’s finally decided to show up,” Louis says as the little blue car Niall’s riding shotgun in rolls to a stop in front of them. “Good. He’ll be on my side.”

“No, he won’t,” Liam maintains.

“There are no sides here,” Harry tries over his boyfriend’s mental insistence that Niall’s curious about the future of intergalactic travel too.

They watch Niall lean over from the passenger’s side to thank Kate, their ex-probation worker, and Niall's lovely new girlfriend, for dropping him off.

Harry tries to put up his mental block to stop their thoughts from getting through as they kiss each other goodbye, however a few things still get through. Mostly how much they can’t wait for five o’clock when Kate’s off work from her new job and Niall’s all done giving back to the community for the day.

Kate waves excitedly at them all on the steps before she drives off, and Harry’s certain he’s never seen anybody as blissfully happy and moon-eyed as their friend when he bounds up the stairs to join them. It reminds Harry of the way he and Louis feel when they’re together or the dreamy look Liam gets whenever he sees echoes of the vision he had last week of him and a beautiful woman with dark hair and vibrant eyes so alive they seem almost electric somehow. Harry doesn’t know who or where she is and neither does Liam, but she’ll be here with them one day soon. 

“Nice of you to drop by and grace us with your presence,” Louis smirks.

“Shut up,” Niall says, giving Louis a light shove in the arm. “You’re all still standing outside so I can’t be _that_ late.”

“New probation worker’s not here yet,” Liam relays with a shrug.

Niall glances at the double doors and presumably through them to find the place virtually empty.  “Then what the hell are we doing standing around out here?” he grins. “The view’s _much_ better on the roof.”

*

“So, on a scale of one to most definitely, how likely is this new probation worker to kill us all with an evil power?” Niall murmurs, looking out over the community center grounds watching the new guy get out of his car. From where they are, he looks normal, but Harry guesses that doesn’t mean much considering the four of them all look pretty normal too.  

“Someone _else_ with a power?” Liam says skeptically, his eyes trailing their new probation worker’s steps towards the front stairs. “That’d be quite a coincidence, don’t you think? You really think there’s more out there?”

Louis snorts at that. “You mean, more besides us four, our first psycho probation worker who tried to kill us, and the psycho exterminator Niall’s zombie girlfriend hired? _Definitely_.”

“Kate already apologized for Brandon, _and_  she was only dead for like, six minutes or something _tops_. Doesn’t even count,” Niall argues over Louis and Liam’s mental insistence that it _does_. “And anyway, we were able to stop Moody and Brandon from hurting us and we saved the day with _our_ powers. We’re like, proper superheroes at this point,” he shrugs. “It’s cool.”

‘ _Agreed. I’d say we make decent heroes so far_.  _I'm kind of into it,'_ Louis thinks as he slips his hand into Harry’s. 

Almost dying every other week isn’t very high on Harry’s list of cool and fun things, but he can’t lie and say the idea of being a superhero isn’t somewhat appealing. Especially if he gets to save the day with all his favorite people. One in particular.

“Well…” Liam says after a while of silently mulling over the concept of them being heroes. “If there really are more people out there doing bad things with their powers, then maybe that’s the reason for all of this. For us being sent here in the first place and then given powers too. To help people. Like a calling.”

“Pretty sure our mutual love of drugs, Niall’s failure at petty theft, and Harry’s lack of bladder control while drunk were the almighty ' _callings_ ' that got us all here in the first place,” Louis smirks. “But, sure. If we get to be badass superheroes and help out the needy, I’m game. I think I'd look rather nice in a cape.” A _mostly_ nice sentiment from Harry's boyfriend. One that Harry already knows won’t stand the moment Liam realizes what was just implied about him and narrows his gaze down the line at Louis as a result.

“ _Our_ love of drugs? What do you mean  _our_?” Liam demands which only makes Louis grin harder.

“Oh, you know _exactly_ what I mean,” he winks. “There’s no shame in it, Li. Just own it.”

"Own what?!" he exclaims. "There's nothing to own!"

“Here we go again,” Niall snorts just as the impatient voice of someone new calling for them reaches the rooftop and makes them all go silent. “Ah, shit,” Niall laments. “He sounds fucking  _lovely,_ doesn't he.”

Their new probation worker is certainly no Kate, that’s for sure. Too bad she’s head over heels in love with Niall and also happened to be killed and brought back zombie-style so she's now sworn off the community center for good. Otherwise, they could’ve kept her. Pity.

“Yeah, I think we better go. He sounds pissed,” Harry sighs thinking Moody Two sounds about as moody as Moody One. But, if he turns out to be inherently evil and has a big, evil, hidden agenda to murder them all, at least this time they’re prepared for it.

He laughs to himself on their way back down the stairs, possibly to their imminent deaths. Not that anyone would know it if they were to listen in right now to Louis and Liam’s routine bickering that never fails to keep the group entertained.

“Those drugs weren’t even _mine_ and you know it!” Liam insists for what must be the millionth time. Not that it matters to Louis who still finds tormenting their friend to be hilarious.

“Yeah, mate, sure. Of course,” he nods understandingly, snickering at Niall and Harry’s fond eye rolls and Liam’s beyond flat expression. “Same here. Next time we’ll just be sure to hide our marijuana in our _capes_  before the cops arrive. Sorted.”

And so begins another thrilling six weeks. _Super_.

 

 

The End

*********************************************************************

**Author's Note:**

> Had a blast writing this! Please share if you enjoyed reading <3
> 
>  
> 
> [rebloggable fic post](http://all-these-larrythings.tumblr.com/post/182554382051/superhuman-tonight-23k-by-rearviewdreamer-a)


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